puer autem ineffabilem (The Unspeakable boy)
by Faff
Summary: On that fateful Halloween night, only one of the Potter twins survived. Supposedly, Eve Potter defeated the Dark Lord after he had just obliterated her brother, thus becoming the Girl-Who-Lived. That's the story everyone knows. But the Department of Mysteries knows the truth, and so does the well trained, well informed, eleven year old unspeakable they're sending to Hogwarts.
1. Definitely 'not' Harry Potter

puer autem ineffabilem (The Unspeakable boy)

Summary: On that fateful Halloween night, only one of the Potter twins survived. Supposedly, Eve Potter defeated the Dark Lord after he had just obliterated her brother, thus becoming the Girl-Who-Lived. That's the story everyone knows. But the department of mysteries knows differently, and so does the well trained, well informed, eleven year old unspeakable they're sending to Hogwarts.

Pairings: undecided. Suggestions would be appreciated.

Rating: T (may raise to M later)

Disclaimer: I, in no way, own anything to do with the Harry Potter series

-/-\-/-\-/-\-

My name is Hadrian Wordsworth. It is also Haris Wardell. As well as Harold Eadward, Hakim Bashar, Heinrich Hochberg and Henri De Sauveterre. I have many more names, but those all depend on where the department has me training at the time. But no matter where I go, deep down I will always be, Harry Potter, the-boy-who-died... Even if I can't tell anyone.

kings cross station

Alan and Leanne Wordsworth stood with their son Hadrian, at the entrance to platform nine and three quarters. They walked through the semi-illusory warded gateway to the hidden platform, and as soon as they emerged into the crowds of wizards and children, each one of the three amplified their public face for the occasion.

Leanne was teary eyed, but smiling so broadly it was unbelievable. Whereas Alan looked like he was experiencing the kind of pride only a father can feel. The skinny eleven year old, with unkempt dark hair, looked considerably apprehensive as he wheeled his trunk along on it's luggage trolley. Out of the three of them though, only the young Hadrian's expression was completely genuine.

Four weeks prior, Ministry of Magic, department of mysteries. briefing room 3

After the four figures had taken their seats around the table, the uniformed unspeakable began by addressing the youngest of their number. "Harry, these two people are Alan and Leanne, they will act as your parents when necessary. You have read the background file we provided you with?"

Harry rolled his eyes briefly, before answering seriously. "Of course, sir. I am Hadrian Wordsworth, eleven years old, only son of Alan and Leanne Wordsworth, who are 36 and 34 respectively. I'm a half-blood, my mother's a muggle, my dad is a wizard. Mother owns a bookshop, my father works with her, and we live in Woking, Surrey. If anyone asks, my dad was a Hufflepuff, and mine and his favourite quidditch team are The Wimbourne Wasps. My birthday is on the 1st of December, my star sign is Sagittarius and my favourite colour is green..." Then a sly smile spread across the young boys face, and he continued in a mock boastful tone. "I'm also an unregistered animagus, I cast a mean patronus, i've survived the killing curse and I'm definitely 'not' Harry Potter 'the-boy-who-died'... That about it, Croaker?"

Croaker laughed, croakily if you can believe it, and answered jokingly. "Well, sort of, it was going well up until 'i'm an unregistered animagus' but apart from that, you're ready to go i'd say."

Harry looked amused, but a disheartened look soon came across his face. "But, Croaker, why can't 'you' act as my dad or something?" Harry quickly turned to 'Leanne' and 'Alan' and said. "No offence! I'm sure you two are great fake parents, it's just" He turned back to Croaker. "I'd be more comfortable with someone I know, y'know?"

Croaker sighed. "I know, but I don't want to risk being recognised, and the concealment charms would take extra effort, not to mention all the other duties i'd have to do as your 'legal dad', which i'd have to split between my current duties. The department thinks its just unnecessary, as much as i'd like to."

Harry slumped in his chair, dejectedly answering. "Understood, sir."

Present day, Kings cross station, platform nine and three quarters

"Okay kiddo, remember to write, okay? Don't want your poor ol' mum worrying now, do we?" Alan beamed as he wished his son well.

"And stay safe! Don't do anything that might get you in trouble. But don't be lazy!" Leanne fretted over her son, as Alan looked on happily.

"Alright mum, but i've gotta go, 'cos, the train." Hadrian said, as his mother engulfed him in a bone breaking hug.

"Okay sweetie. Go, go! Don't let it leave without you." His mother shooed him away, whilst still looking after her son tearfully, as Hadrian boarded the Hogwarts express.

"Look after yourself son, I can't wait to hear what house you're in!" Was Alan's last call, as Hadrian Wordsworth disappeared into the train, and numerous other children and teenagers swarmed onto the locomotive as well.

Hadrian now needed to begin his primary objective, the whole reason the department had taken him in, trained him, raised him. He needed to find his sister, Eve Potter, the-girl-who-lived, and protect her. Now, Hadrian (and the department) figured the best way to do that, would be to befriend her. First however, Hadrian had to find her.

The train had started moving before Hadrian found his objective. She was sat in a compartment, along with a red haired boy.

Poking his head through the door, Hadrian sheepishly asked. "Alright, err, can I sit in here? There's not much room anywhere else."

The red head answered, saying. "Tell me about it mate. Sure, I mean, if thats cool with you?" The ginger haired boy looked across at the girl-who-lived, who nodded and said. "Yeah sure, come in."

After Hadrian had pulled his trunk inside, Eve brushed a lock of her long dark red hair out of her light hazel eyes, and continued. "i'm Eve Potter, this is Ron Weasley. You are?"

If Hadrian had to say, he would note that Eve did sound a little too pleased with her surname. But he could hardly judge character straight off the bat, however that didn't mean he had to indulge possible arrogance, so he said. "I'm Hadrian Wordsworth, nice to meet 'cha both."

As Hadrian settled into a seat next to Eve, closer to the door, Eve and Ron continued the conversation they'd been having. "Anyway Eve, what quidditch team d'you support? I support the Chudley cannons." Ron spoke pridefully.

Eve was about to answer, but Hadrian chipped in, to say to Ron. "Wow, you're a cannons supporter? Huh... I didn't think they had any fans left." Hadrian quipped sarcastically.

"Oi!" Ron objected. Then accusingly asked Hadrian. "What team d'you support then?"

7 years ago. Croakers office, deparment of mysteries.

A much younger Harry was sat in Croakers office, spinning on a chair and waiting for the moment when Croaker would announce that they could go home. When the little boy spotted something that piqued his curiosity, Harry piped up. "Croak? Why's a picture of a wasp on your mug?"

Croaker looked over his desk at little Harry and answered sagely. "Well Harry, thats the mark of the quidditch team I support."

"What's Kidditch?" Harry questioned, as he stopped his office chair spinning to question the unspeakable.

"Well Harry, Quidditch is a sport. Played in the air, flying on broomsticks." Croaker explained.

"Cool, can we play?" Harry answered, awed at the answer.

"Not at your age, Harry." Croaker chuckled, before noticing the downtrodden look the boy now exhibited. "Tell you what though, i could check with the higher ups, see if we can get out to see a game or two."

"Really!?" Harry responded, now practically bouncing on his seat.

"Probably. You'd have to go under concealment charms though. Remember those kiddo?"

"Yep!" Harry replied joyfully.

The next week, Harry Potter went with Croaker to see his first Quidditch match. The Wimbourne Wasps VS The Appleby Arrows. The Wasps lost 170 to 40, but it was one of the most exciting things Harry could remember in his young life.

Back in the present, on the Hogwarts express

"The Wimbourne Wasps." Hadrian answered proudly.

"Cough, bandwagon, cough." Ron joked.

"Hey, me 'n my dad have been Wasps since I was little, my dad since before then. I've even got my Wasps scarf in my trunk" Hadrian seemed offended, but was smiling nonetheless. It was all in good fun after all. And he was enjoying actually being able to talk with people of his own age for an extended period of time.

"Whatever" Ron snorted a bit with laughter, before regarding Eve again. "So, what team do you support then Eve?"

"Holyhead Harpies." The girl-who-lived answered simply.

To this, both boys made simultaneous 'ahhh's' of understanding. Before Ron said. "Figures."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Eve challenged.

"Nothin' nothing, they're a good team." Ron quickly covered.

Eve answered with a victorious 'hm'. Before a calm silence descended upon their compartment.

"So..." Hadrian broke the silence inquisitively. "What houses are you two hoping for?"

Both Eve and Ron answered simultaneously, chorusing. "Gryffindor."

There was a moment of chuckling, before Ron said. "Yeah, my whole family have been Gryff's, so i'm pretty much a cert."

"Same here." Eve added brightly.

"Plus you're the-girl-who-lived, so there's that." Ron added.

"So?" Eve retorted defensively.

"Well, y'know, defeating He-who-must-not-be-named... That's pretty brave." Ron somewhat shyly joked.

"Ugh, I don't even know what the big deal is. It's not like I duelled him or-" Eve was getting irate, so Hadrian opted to shift the subject back to houses.

"I'm hoping for Hufflepuff." Hadrian said, a little too cheerfully.

This silenced Eve, and drew both her's and Ron's attention to him. Both of them wearing slightly shocked, puzzled expressions.

"... What?" Hadrian said, taken aback by the looks they were giving him.

"Well... No offence, but, no one really 'hopes' for Hufflepuff." Ron sheepishly said.

"Yeah. And, I mean, nothing wrong with Hufflepuff, but." Eve continued.

"My dad was a Hufflepuff." Hadrian stated, faking being offended by the insult to his 'father's' house. But he silently thought to himself, a little genuinely disheartened. 'Croaker was a Hufflepuff too'

"Er, what we mean is..." Ron rambled, fishing for a salvation to this faux pas.

"You don't really seem like a Hufflepuff!" Eve blurted, sounding as if she'd metaphorically struck gold in the saving of the conversation.

Hadrian opted to have a little fun at the expense of the two, so he let them stew in silence for a minute. Fixing them both with cold stares. Before bursting out into laughter. "HAhahaa, oh dear, you two's faces. Man, that was funny."

Ron and Eve looked flustered, yet amused and relieved as well. And soon they joined the laughter too.

Then their laughter was interrupted by a hooting, screeching sound from the luggage racks. Hadrian looked up, and saw a snowy owl in a cage sitting up there. "Ohh, whose is she?" He questioned.

"Her names Hedwig, and how do you know she's a she?" Eve answered happily.

"I love animals." Hadrian replied with a smile. "You got a familiar Ron?"

"Well, sort of." The freckled boy replied, glumly.

"What do you mean sort of?" Eve said, raising an eyebrow.

"His name is Scabbers... He's a rat." Ron said, taking a sorry looking Rat out of it's small cage, from where it had resided under the seats. "And a terrible one at that..."

"Do you have a pet Hadrian? I don't see a cage or anything, do you not have one?" Eve asked curiously.

"Oh, i've got a familiar. She just doesn't like being cooped up, and I can trust her not to wander off too far, so." Hadrian lifted his forearm up, and raised his other forearm to meet the cuff of his jackets sleeve.

Ron and Eve's eye widened in alarm, as Eve stuttered out. "Good luck with getting into Hufflepuff. With a pet like that, I think theres only one house for you."

4 years ago, Department of mysteries

Croaker had instructed him to wait here before they began the lesson of the day. And in Harry's personal opinion, there were way too many jars in this room. They were all bell jars made of a thick looking glass, all on raised platforms, and some of them were clouded, their contents obscured. Whereas others were visible, but no less unidentifiable. The few jars, with contents Harry could identify, contained things that Harry thought were mundane objects, but this being the department, he knew they were anything but. One even contained an animal. The one containing a living specimen caught his eye in particular, or ear rather, when he heard a voice hiss. "What a loathhhhsssome human you aaaare... Sssssmall, ssssmelly, ssstupid, and you can't even undersssstand me you ssssilly, little-" Harry whirled around and locked eyes onto the source of the voice.

The voice immediately stopped when Harry faced the speaker. And after a few moments of awkward silence, the speaker spoke once more. "Caaan you hhhear me?"

Harry answered very tentatively. But when his voice came out, it was different. It slipped out, the sounds of the words he spoke came so naturally, yet Harry couldn't control or even comprehend how he was making them. This resulted in his tone being somewhat confused and surprised. "Yessss..."

"Thhen get meee out of hhhere." The speaker replied.

In an adjoining room, Croaker and another unspeakable were watching the events going on with Harry, as the boy lifted down the jar and proceeded to free its inhabitant. "Out of all the possible connections, it was that... Can't say i'm surprised." The Unspeakable said dryly.

To which Croaker replied, with a hint of pride. "Neither can I. This is a breakthrough though. Harry Potter. The-Boy-Who-Died. A parseltongue... You compile information on parseltongues and anything serpentine and magical. I'll tell Harry."

Present day, Howgwarts express.

"Oh come one, just 'cos i've got a snake as my familiar doesn't mean i'm a Slytherin. Besides, whats wrong with Slytherin?" Hadrian answered offhandedly, as the blue and purple, striped garter snake wound its way around his right arm.

"What's wrong with Slytherin?" Ron said, sounding aghast. "My dad said no one good has ever come out of Slytherin."

Eve added informatively. "Yeah, my dad says the same. It's also you-know-who's house..."

"Well, if I am in Slytherin I guess i'll have to make some changes then." Hadrian smiled, trying to settle the two down. If he had known they'd freak out like this, he probably wouldn't have shown them. "It's just a snake guys. Besides, Calypso's harmless, ain't'cha girl?" Hadrian said, lifting the small serpent up to eye level.

"Well, if you say so..." Said Ron, not sounding the least bit convinced, and even a bit wary.

Eve was thankfully a little less put off than Ron was, and said. "Calypso's a lovely name though. But, is she supposed to be that colour."

"Aha, check this out." Hadrian said, proudly, as he drew his wand, and levelled it at the snake. "Red and yellow alright with you Calypso?" He asked the serpent, whilst Eve and Ron looked on, dumbfounded.

The display was halted though, as the door to their compartment suddenly slid open. Turning their attentions to the now open door, the three were greeted by a girl with (in Hadrian's opinion) ridiculously bushy brown hair. The newcomer leant into their compartment and asked, no, demanded of them. "Have any of you seen a toad? His name is Trevor. A boy called Neville's lost him you see."

They were about to answer, when the bushy haired girl seemed to actually realise what was going on in the compartment. She yelped rather violently, reeling back from the snake, which had been (given Hadrian's seating in the compartment) quite close to her face. After recovering, and realising that 'no, the very small snake was not going to devour her whole, or poison her, or do anything untoward like that' the girl noticed how Hadrian was holding his wand. She asked, flustered but trying to regain some sense of composure. "So, are you doing magic? Go on, let's see it then."

The attention went back to Hadrian, who, with a "uhhhm, okay." Placed his wand on Calypso's back, and silently cast the spell.

The snake instantly changed colour, going from electric blue and deep purple vertical stripes, to bright yellow and ruby red, band-like horizontal stripes.

A collective 'wow' went up from the three onlookers. And each responded in their own way. Ron commented with an impressed. "Wicked." Eve similarly said "aww, so cool." And Hermione flared up, saying. "How did you do that without saying an incantation?! That's really advanced, even if it is just a colour changing spell, thats silent casting of transfiguration. How did you do it!"

'Oh, good grief' Hadrian thought, as realisation dawned on both Eve and Ron's faces. Then Eve said, sounding in equal parts impressed and curious. "Yeah. That's apparently really difficult to do."

"Mate, screw Slytherin, you're a Ravenclaw if you're doing magic like that." Ron declared.

Hadrian knew he screwed up, and could just try and pass this off as harmlessly as he could. There was nothing wrong with standing out for being smart, but standing out too much, standing out like casting silent spells in his first year, would be problematic. The department had trained him better than to make mistakes like this. "Uhh, I dunno, I just, did it. I've done the spell a bunch of times before so."

The bushy haired girl then began speaking. "Well anyway, that's really impressive." as Hadrian thought 'oh thank Merlin, i'm off the hook' whilst the girl carried on. "I've read all the books of course, and more, but I couldn't even begin to try that. Or maybe I could. I'm Hermione Granger by the way."

"Hadrian Wordsworth." "Ron Weasley." "Eve Potter." The respective owners of said names replied.

To this, Hermione lit up like a christmas tree, her hair was bushy enough too Hadrian considered. "You're Eve Potter? Oh my gosh, i've read all about you of course. You're in 'The rise and fall of the Dark Arts' and 'modern magical history'. Not to mention the papers i've seen you and your family in. I can't imagine what it must be like, to go into hiding for your whole life. You're so brave, and defeating the Dark lord too, wow, you're a role model really." Hermione rambled.

"Heh, thanks." Eve said, somewhat sheepishly. "But s'no big deal really, I was only a baby when I 'defeated' you-know-who. And it's not like I did much."

"Huh." Hadrian interjected, after having noticed something Eve said, and found it curious.

"... What is it?" Inquired Eve.

"I don't know, it's... It's just out of all the people in the world, I thought at least you'd have the guts to call him Voldermort." If anything, Hadrian sounded disappointed. But all that disappointment, vanished with the reactions the other three gave.

Eve and Ron gasped to such a degree that it was remarkable they didn't pass out. And Hermione seemed quite put off.

He had expected this, and Hadrian explained. "My dad always told me, 'fear of the name increases fear of the thing itself."

Eve scrambled to regain her composure, and stuttered out. "Yeah, well, I don't say his name 'cos, y'know, it'd, err, scare, other people. Yeah, don't wanna frighten ya' haha, haa. I've no problem saying it if you can. I'll s-say it all day... V-voldermort... There, haha, haa..." The girl-who-lived hurried out the dark lords name like lightning, afterwards gulping, quite obviously alarmed at how she had managed to say it.

"Well, i'm going to continue helping Neville look for Trevor. It was nice meeting you all, see you later." Hermione said rather briskly. Smiling widely at Eve, nodding at Ron and casting an appraising yet wary smile at Hadrian.

Silence reigned in the carriage for a time after that, until they heard a voice call from the doorway. "Anything from the trolley dears?"

Some time, and many bertie botts every flavour beans later...

"Ok, last one." Eve said, "what d'you two reckon it is from the colour." Staring at the jelly beam in her hand.

"Nothing thats browny-beige ever tastes good. I'm thinking wax of some kind." Hadrian surmised.

"Nah mate, could be cookie dough or something." Ron said thoughtfully.

"Only one way to find out." Eve smiled, and ate the bean. She chewed for a moment, before her face contorted into a grimace and she made a sound akin to a car engine grinding to a halt. She swallowed the bean, and then said in a defeated, disgusted manner. "Burnt candle wax."

"Yes!" Hadrian exclaimed. Punching his hands into the air. Then retracting them and apologetically saying. "I mean, aww, tough luck."

The three had started laughing, when their compartment door once again slid open unannounced. This time their visitor, or visitors, were a blond haired boy, who was being flanked by what Hadrian could swear were half trolls, but at second glance they were revealed to just be big guys. "I heard that Eve Potter was on the train. Are you her?" The blonds drawl of a voice was directed at Eve, obviously. As he bluntly ignored both Hadrian and Ron.

"Err, yeah that's me." Eve answered simply. "Hi."

"Well Miss Potter, i'm Draco Malfoy, and might I suggest you choose you company wisely. Your family has come out of hiding, so I should warn you that 'some people'," with the comment of, some people, Draco shot a pointed look at Ron. Whose face soured even further than it had when he first laid eyes on the blond boy. Draco continued regardless. "Theres nothing to be gained from associating yourself with losers, and nobodies."

In saying losers, the Malfoy boy shot a look at Ron and with the comment of nobodies, he cast a withering gaze across Hadrian. Hadrian didn't much care what the Malfoy brat though of him, and could only spare to think to himself, amusedly. 'I'm not a Nobody(1), i'm still an unspeakable. Though being a Nobody officially would be awesome, Croaker says they get to actually use all the badass department stuff. But then again, officially i'm dead so what can I do.'

When Hadrian snapped out of his own thoughts, Eve had stood up and was confronting Draco. "I don't care who you, or your 'father' are. You don't get to insult my friends!" The girl-who-lived then proceeded to slam the door shut in Draco's face. Before she huffed, and slumped back down into her seat, arms crossed, looking agitated.

There was a pregnant silence, before Ron quipped. "I can see now. You-know-who never stood a chance."

Eve spared an exasperated. "Oh shut up." Before Ron said. "Thanks though, for defending us. Not that we couldn't have done it ourselves, but still. cheers. Malfoy's a right prat."

Eve gave a nod of confirmation, and the train journey returned to normal. The three of them sitting and talking about Hogwarts, Quidditch, their families, and various other things until it came time to change into their school robes. Ron and Hadrian stepped out of the compartment whilst Eve changed, and when she had her robes on, she did the same to allow Ron and Hadrian to change.

Soon after they had donned their robes, and Hadrian had Calypso under his sleeves, wound around his forearm, the train began to pull to a stop.

They had finally arrived at Hogwarts school for witchcraft and wizardry. Here's where Hadrians mission would really start.

-/-\-/-\-/-\-

A/N: I started writing this and couldn't stop. I find the department of mysteries so intriguing, so full of possibilities, and deputy unspeakable Harry promises to be quite fun. Consider this a shot at the 'Harry is raised by (insert powerful maguffin here)' genre, with half 'wrong boy(girl) who lived' too. Read, review and follow if you enjoy it. Thanks for getting this far!

Also, i've had formatting trouble, so you'll just have to dofferentiate thoughts, speech and parseltongue through the contest and wording. Parseltongue should be easy to ssssssspot.

Footnotes:

1) Nobody/Nobodies. A branch of the Department of Mysteries. While the Unspeakable's are focused more on research, the Nobodies do field work and covert operations.


	2. Sorted

Puer autem ineffabilem (The Unspeakable boy)

Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with the Harry Potter series.

-/-\-/-\-/-\-

Hadrian took stock of the goings on so far. He had found his sister, and started the process of befriending the girl-who-lived.

Now, the department had issued him with a number of lesser objectives that might help him accomplish his overall task, so he could best protect Eve until such time as Voldermort revealed himself, and he, the-boy-who-died, could defeat the dark wizard permanently.

The secondary task Hadrian currently had in mind, was to try and ensure his placement into the same house as Eve Potter. The department had informed him that the sorting Hat did in fact take a students personal preference into account, so Hadrian was to bear that in mind during sorting. It wouldn't make his task impossible if he was sorted into a different house. it'd just make surveillance a tad more difficult. However with certain enchanted objects in strategic places, as well as apt use of his more esoteric and secretive skills, it wouldn't be impossible.

So, standing inside Hogwarts' great hall, amongst the multitude of other first years, Hadrian Wordsworth tried to put himself in a Gryffindor mindset. Having assumed that Eve would be placed in the house of her, or rather their, parents.

The sorting Hats song was rather enjoyable to Hadrian, up until it reached a point where it said something that made the boy's stomach clench. "There's nothing hidden in your head, the sorting Hat can't see."

'We'll see snout that, time to put my occlumency to the test.' Hadrian thought. He had anticipated that this would be tricky, but with any luck the Hat was just bragging. Or only saying that because it needed a rhyme for that line.

When Professor McGonagall began reading out names, Hadrian started focusing more on, well, focusing, than listening to who went where.

Unbeknownst to the Unspeakable boy though, a certain greasy haired professor was observing him from the staff table. Taking a mild interest in the unwavering lack of emotion, or even motion that the boy was showing. Standing behind Eve and Ron, feet shoulder width apart, hands clasped behind his back. Hadrian was, if anything, military, prepared, ordered.

The Unspeakable boy did engage eventually though, when he felt that his mental fortitude was secure. This coincided with the moment when McGonagall called out. "Potter, Eve." Hadrian looked up, along with every other student in the hall. As the whispering began, Hadrian watched his sister take the long walk up to the sorting Hat, where the bespectacled girl sat down on the rickety wooden stool.

The hat stayed on her head for a little longer than most, and Hadrian couldn't help but wonder what it was saying to her. His musings were put to an end though, when the Hat bellowed out it's decision. "GRYFFINDOR!"

'No surprise there' Hadrian thought, grinning. Hopefully James and Lily Potter would be proud of her. 'What would they think of me though? Haha' Hadrian considered, as the Gryffindor table was exploding with cheers, and even a chant of. "We got Potter, we got Potter!"

Time flew by whilst the other students were sorted into the appropriate houses. Until only Hadrian and one other boy remained.

Then, his number was up. "Wordsworth, Hadrian."

There was a lack of whispering, or even interest from the majority of the student body. Which was just as Hadrian liked it. So he walked calmly up to the stool, and sat down. The Hat descended on his head, and his vision of the hall was replaced by that of the inside of a very old, rather smelly Hat.

Then Hadrian heard a wizened old voice say inside his head. 'Oi, it's not my fault I smell like this. It's all you little brats. Hm.'

'Sorry, Hat' Hadrian thought back, politely.

There was a moment of silence, before he felt the Hat crinkle on his head. Then he heard the Hat rather venomously hiss to him. 'You can't hide from me boy. Didn't you hear the bloody song... Urgh... You can't hide your secr-'

Then the Hat stopped. Where it had been wriggling on his head and grumbling in his mind, now it was still and silent as the grave.

The absence of, anything, lasted for a little while, before the Hat opened it's tear of a mouth, and boomed out for the whole hall to hear. "HAHAHAHHAAA HOHOHOHHOO ahaha OH HO HO HO OHH yesssssss. Ahmm"

Then it returned to speaking to Hadrian privately in his thoughts. 'Thats why you were hiding your secrets from me, ahmmhm. Now I know why your mind is locked up, it's like a maze in here! But don't worry, I won't go digging anywhere I shouldn't. Not if I can help it, ahahahmmm...'

'Did you have to laugh out loud like that?' Hadrian thought to the Hat, still remaining as civil and polite as possible.

'Sorry' the Hat replied amiably, a significant trace of mirth left in its tone. 'But I'm used to reading the mind of snot brained simpletons. And I only get to do that once a year! I've only been so entertained a few times in my life. And twice in this year too! Yessss, your sister had a tricky little mind in her too, yesss.'

'Can I ask who else entertained you? For curiosities sake.' Hadrian inquired. Whilst subtly shoring up his occlumency.

'Okay, I suppose I owe you that... Lets see, there's you, of course... Your sister. Albue Dumbledore. A certain Dark lord ehehehe... And a boy by the name of Bunty Fluffkin, whose name alone was a riot. I wonder what ever happened to him?... Oh well. Yes those people, there are more, but I must get back to your house. Can't keep them waiting all day, and they're getting rather antsy with all this waiting.'

'Of course... Hat. I was told you take a students personal preference into account, is that correct?' Hadrian questioned. He was getting more than a little nervous by now, and needed to put this matter to rest.

'It is, it is...' The Hat pondered thoughtfully, though the cap seemed to be distracted with it's own thoughts. Then, before Hadrian could ask for Gryffindor, the Hat cut him short. 'But not this time. No, with certain people I just have to go with my gut... Hypothetical gut of course. But gut nonetheless... So many secrets, so cunningly concealed. My my, yes there's only one place for you.' Then before Hadrian could argue otherwise, the Hat opened it's cloth maw, and boomed.

"SLYTHERIN!"

'Well, so much for easy surveillance...' Hadrian resigned to himself, as the Hat was lifted off his head. When it was removed, the Unspeakable boy was greeted with the sight of the entire student body of Hogwarts, staring at him with faces that held a medium of awe, confusion, boredom, and yet more confusion. Evidently the Hats outburst at the beginning had puzzled everyone, as had the significant amount of time it took for him to be sorted.

In an attempt to not look disappointed with the house he was placed in (and he really wasn't, it was just inconvenient), Hadrian smiled and stood up from the stool. The Slytherin table swelled with an 'above average' round of applause, Hadrian thought. But he did glimpse his sister and Ron Weasley over at the Gryffindor table, looking a little disappointed and befuddled.

But Hadrian happily took a seat at the Slytherin table next to some other first years, as the final boys name was called out. While McGonagall called up "Zabini, Blaise." The two first years on either side of him, whispered an introduction.

"Hi, i'm Daphne." The girl on his left said cooly, her long dark hair obscuring about half of her face.

"A'wight, i'm Nott. Theodore." The slightly tubby boy to the right of him beamed jovially.

Hadrian replied to Theodore, by quipping, rather obviously. "So you're not Theodore? Or you're Theodore Nott?"

Not Theodore rolled his eyes, and exasperated. "Oh no, please not this."

Hadrian chuckled, and replied. "Nah, s'alright mate. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too Daphne."

Theodore smiled back at him, and Daphne did so as well. Probably. Daphne's hair was really rather concealing. It was either a openly friendly smile, or a timid half smirk. So not much margin for error. But they both seemed nice.

It was then that the recently sorted Blaise Zabini came over to the snakes' table. Which promoted them all to applaud. As it so happened Blaise sat down across from Hadrian, Theo and Daphne. Whereupon he swept back his neat black hair and shyly introduced himself to them. "Err, hey, i'm, well yeah, i'm Blaise..."

The three new Slytherin's gave an almost simultaneous. "Hello." Before Headmaster Dumbledore stood up, drawing the whole halls attention and effectively silencing any burgeoning conversation.

The key points Hadrian garnered from Dumbledores speech included "forbidden forest" as well as "third floor corridor is out of bounds to those who don't wish to die a horrible death". Hadrian had expected the forest to be forbidden, as that was mentioned in the books he had read. The warning about the third floor came as a curious surprise though, and Hadrian immediately made a mental note to investigate it as soon as possible.

Oh, and of course 'Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!' Because if that wasn't secret code then Hadrian didn't know what was.

When food appeared on the table, Hadrian merrily commented to the other three sitting with him. "Ahh, magic."

Theo chuckled, whilst loading up his plate with steak & kidney pie. Happily agreeing. "You can say that again!"

As Theo was quite merrily tucking in, a second year across from them sharply addressed the pudgy boy. "I suggest you have some decorum. You're a Slytherin now, not some barbarian."

Theo had the good sense be sheepish, swallow his overfull mouthful and say. "Sorry..."

The second year smiled and simply answered. "Good."

From then on Hadrian, as well as Theo and Blaise, took extra care to mind their table manners. Daphne however was one step ahead of them, and was sat eating quietly and slowly, with as much grace as it was possible to have when eating sausage & mash.

It was halfway through their eating, that Hadrian saw fit to start up some conversation with the people he was to be spending the next seven years with. "So, what lesson are you all lookin' forward to the most? For me it's charms."

Blaise answered first, awkwardly saying. "Charms, eh? That'll be fun, I guess. I'm not sure, I s-suppose defence against the dark arts seems like, fun..."

Hadrian came to the conclusion that Blaise must be a nervous kind of guy, hopefully he'd become less awkward as they all became friends. Theo followed by agreeing warm heartedly. "Yeah. DADA's gonna be awesome from what I hear."

Daphne then chipped in. Her voice was reserved, but still had the confidence in it to draw focus. "I'm not so sure. Apparently something happened to Professor Quirell, the defence professor, over the summer and he came back different. He used to be the muggle studies teacher, so to go from that, to defence against the dark arts? I'll reserve judgement."

Blaise asked Daphne the question Hadrian had been thinking. "W-where did you hear that?"

Her reply was simply. "I overheard some older students talking. From what I heard, one of them talked to Quirell briefly before the feast."

"Hmm, weird." Hadrian commented, before asking. "So what lesson can't you wait for Daph?"

Her reply began curtly. "Don't call me Daph." But the rest of her answer was conversational enough. "The concept of looking forward to lessons is somewhat foreign to me. But if I had to say... Potions and Herbology."

"Why's that?" Hadrian inquired further.

"At the family manor, mother has an extensive greenhouse. She's a somewhat well known herbologist, and I find potions to be a fascinating subject by itself." Daphne answered formally, yet not without a friendly edge to her tone.

"Wait... You have a family 'manor'?" Hadrian asked, a little impressed.

The other three returned to him a confused sounding chorus. "You don't?"

"No. I lived in Woking, no family manor there, ha." Hadrian smiled self deprecatingly.

"S-s-so, are you a..." Blaise timidly began.

Daphne finished the question bitterly, accusingly asking. "Are you a mudblood or something?"

'Ahh, every rose has it's thorn... A racist thorn it would seem. Croaker told me about this, blood supremacy.' Hadrian thought dejectedly. Cooly he answered, though he still felt that answering their question meant he was admitting that the answer mattered. Though his objective to not ruffle any feathers took prescience over his moral standing. Something he didn't entirely feel comfortable with. "No, i'm not a muggleborn. I'm a half blood. My mum's a muggle, dad's a wizard."

The looks he received, especially from Daphne, were a little grating. Daphne looked on the verge of being disgusted. While Theo just looked surprised. Then there was Blaise, who looked rather worried. 'Great. If these are looks I get for being a halfblood, i'm glad the Unspeakable's didn't decide my cover would be as a muggleborn'

Resigned, Hadrian bluntly stated. "... What."

"No, nothing. It's just, usually only purebloods get sorted into Slytherin." Theo said offhandedly. At least he seemed not to care. Daphne and Blaise on the other hand, looked like they might.

"Well I guess i'm just, unusual." Hadrian replied with a smirk, trying to play it off lightly. For the most part they seemed to drop the subject, and soon enough they were rising from the table and being herded towards their common room by the Slytherin prefects.

Soon enough they arrived in the dungeons, stopping at what appeared to be a bare stone wall. But at the point between two braziers on the wall, the prefect leading them swiftly turned to face them. "Here" he said, coldly. "Is the entrance to the Slytherin common room. There is a password, which changes every four weeks. Make sure you keep up to date via the notice board, which I will show you presently. The password, starting today is, pure-blood."

'Oh for crying out loud. Talk about beating a dead horse.' Hadrian mulled disparagingly.

He then heard someone whisper behind him. "Have to wonder whether it'll let you in Wordsworth." The slimy tone was revealed to belong to Draco Malfoy, the blond Hadrian remembered from the train. Hadrian would've turned to give him a heated stare, but Theo patted him on the arm and muttered. "Don't bother."

Hadrian spared a thought, wondering how Malfoy knew he was a halfblood. But resolved to deal with it later, as the prefect up front spoke the passphrase to the wall itself. With the utterance of the passphrase, the unremarkable section of bare stone wall between the two braziers, folded aside to reveal their common room.

It was sunken, Hadrian noted, as they descended the few steps into the rather architecturally unique space. A large, rectangular room, with a number of raised and sunken alcoves set in various points along the four walls. It was cosily lit, with a blazing hearth in the middle of one wall. The alcoves, presumably for study, or those who wanted a little private moment for whatever reason, each had windows. Small things that looked out into... An underwater. landscape.

'Now, this is cool' Hadrian thought. 'From one underground bunker to another. This one is far nicer than the department though. less brains in jars,for one...'

The walls of the subterranean common room were draped with tapestries, each emblazoned with the Slytherin colours, usually adorning snake imagery of some kind. Leather armchairs were dotted about the room, as were wooden tables, and the occasional bookshelf along the wall.

In the middle of the room though, was something Hadrian hoped wasn't a permanent design choice. A tall man, dressed in dark robes that fell about him like wings. He had rather greasy looking hair, and a somewhat hooked nose.

Hadrian recognised him of course. He had familiarised himself with the Hogwarts staff before coming here, so he therefore could identify this sallow faced, pale man as.

"I am Professor Severus Snape, your head of house." He drawled. A manner of speech that seemed to come naturally to most Slytherins Hadrian had noticed. The Professor continued. "You have been elected into the house of those who have ambition, those who aspire to greatness, and have the cunning and intelligence required to achieve that greatness. As a member of my house, you will conduct yourselves with decorum and decency at all times. But even in doing so, you will be subject to certain, prejudices.

Slytherin has s reputation for being, untrustworthy. This is of course, simple minded babbling, yet you may wish to keep that fact in mind during your time at this great institute." The professors voice, to Hadrian at least, sounded a lot like parseltongue. Snape's sibilance certainly seemed to shine in his speech. "However, this does not provide you with an excuse to behave in a fashion unbefitting of your station. In this house, if you step out of line, I will not hesitate to bestow punishment upon you. As your head of house, it is my job to guide you, not coddle you... Any questions..."

There were no questions. Not surprisingly, given the Professors intimidating nature. So with a curt. "That is all." Professor Snape billowed out of the common room in his pitch black robes.

What followed were a few more words from the Slytherin prefects regarding curfew time, dormitories, and the notice board. Then after that they all retreated to their dormitories to become acquainted with their sleeping quarters.

The simple split of boys dorms and girls dorms was obvious, as was separating the different years. So Hadrian found himself in a large circular room, with fourposter beds placed equidistantly around the walls. His dorm mates were the other first year Slytherin boys. Which included Theo and Blaise. Malfoy and his two cronies. As well as Hadrian himself, which brought the total to six.

Beside each bed was a window looking out into what Hadrian assumed was the lake. Then at the foot of each of their beds were their trunks. Hadrian went over to his bed, and started sorting through his trunk, looking for a specific object.

Department of mysteries. One month prior

"How should I submit my reports? Or, what if I need advise on something? Should I send an owl to the false address?" Harry questioned Croaker.

"Well, that's the thing. If you do have extensive information to convey in a report, do so as you would in any other report. But make sure you use the best concealment charms you can on the letter. If it's not too extensive, write a coded letter, and convey the information you have in short hand, but do so, so that it would seem to an outside that the letter is nothing out of the ordinary." Croaker rattled off. But then he led Harry over to his desk, sitting upon which were two unmarked, leather bound books. Quite small, and upon opening, blank.

Setting a quill and pot of ink on the desk, Croaker said to Harry. "See if you can figure out how these work." The Unspeakable smiled at him.

Harry grinned, took the quill, inked it, and began to write in one of the books. And sure enough, as he put ink to paper, the words he wrote appeared exactly as he had written them, in the other book as well.

At the top of the first page of both books, Harry wrote the words. 'This, is, awesome. HW'

Croaker took the quill from Harry, and smiling, wrote in the other book. Just under Harrys writing. 'I know. SC'

"Bear in mind though, the books can only transcribe so much information at a time. So to conserve space write as little as possible. While of course still conveying what you need to say." Croaker finished, handing Harry one of the books.

Present day, Slytherin boys dormitory.

Hadrian took out the small unmarked book, along with his self inking quill, and sat down on his bed to write.

Most of the other boys were busying themselves by making their small sections of the room their own. And Hadrian would do so momentarily, but first he had things to report.

Then a voice that was slowly becoming a harbinger of the intolerable addressed him. "Wordsworth has a diary I see. Are you a girl Wordsworth? Or is this a halfblood thing."

"It's a journal, Malfoy. A record of all the thoughts I have, a ledger of notes, a chronicle of my life. A very useful thing to have. So far, you've featured once. In a very bad light I might add." Hadrian lied, sarcastically drawling out his comeback. Uh oh, maybe it was the house itself that brought the drawling on? Some kind of curse maybe?

"Why should I care, little miss halfblood...?" Malfoy retorted, his comment issuing almost tired, reluctant chuckles from his henchmen.

Hadrian didn't dignify the git with an answer. Just wrote the words. 'Slytherin. How best to fit in? HW'

Malfoy didn't seem to want to stop the exchange, and started on a new tangent of insulting. "So, your mother is a muggle? One must wonder how hideous your father must be if no witch would take him."

Hadrian remained silent. As Malfoy continued, trying to illicit a response. "Had to resort to picking through the trash did he?"

The answer appeared. Two simply words. 'Assert dominance. SC'

"Did he-" Malfoy never got to finish that sentence. As Hadrian had flipped the book shut, dropped his quill and drawn his wand. He rolled off his bed, corkscrewing onto his feet facing Malfoy, who stood in the middle of the room, and whose face was suddenly dropping.

"Tundem" Hadrian incanted, bringing his wand through the air in line with Malfoy's face, making a wide swiping motion.

The spell caused Malfoy to whirl around, being led by an invisible impact to his face. The spell, Tundem, was simple but rarely used, as it wasn't exactly good for anything. Being too weak for duelling, and having no other real application. It was considered a bit superfluous. Nevertheless, Hadrian favoured unusual spells, and the 'Slap spell' was a satisfying reaction to any insult.

Malfoy was very taken aback, but not enough to not react. So he tried to draw his wand. The same reaction of both his cronies, while Theo and Blaise looked on with alarmed faces.

But Hadrian was no stranger to duelling, far from it. Besides, this wasn't duelling, this was babies first picture book on duelling. Hadrian doubted Malfoy even knew any spells. At least not any that could be effectively used to defend against Hadrian's assault.

With three quick mutterings from Hadrian, of "expelliarmus." Along with the appropriate wand movements, Three wands found themselves far from their owners.

Hadrian's form for wand battles was very refined as it was. He spoke the spell incantations quietly and quickly, while his wand movements flourished, rapidly and wildly. But they were in actuality designed to give the most powerful spell result, and despite the violence he delivered them with, they were precise to near pin-point accuracy.

The boy-who-died, advanced on the now retreating, wide eyed Malfoy boy. With another "tundem" Malfoy had fallen on his rear, where Hadrian now pointed his wand in the blonds face.

"I like a good laugh as much as the next bloke, Malfoy. But if you insult me like that, I will not cut you any bloody slack." Hadrian lowered his wand, but fixed the shellshocked boy with a methodical glare. A glare that was most unusual for a boy of his age, but then again, Hadrian Wordsworth was wholly unusual. "I'm a half blood. But the purity of my blood doesn't mean anything. A snakes blood is cold, Draco, it's purity doesn't factor into the potency of its venom. Watch yourself before you badmouth half bloods in front of me again."

Despite his (apparently successful) attempt at a intimidating veneer, Hadrian couldn't help but break out into a barking laugh, when he heard one of Malfoy's cronies whisper to the other. "I thought snakes were hot blooded?"

Malfoy seemed exasperated at his henchman's oddly timed comment. Sighing, the blond said. "... No, Crabbe, snakes are cold blooded." Overall the blond seemed shaken, but not to an extent where he completely lost his composure.

So as Hadrian holstered his wand, Malfoy picked himself up, dusted himself off and said, apologetically. "Err, ok. Sorry... I shouldn't have said that. We're all in Slytherin so I guess I should behave more cordially, like the professor said."

"No one said we have to be best mates, Malfoy. Just don't be a prat. Snape said we'd be prejudiced against, so we should stick together, not hate each other."

"Yeah!" Theo exclaimed, punching the air joyfully. Before stopping when no one else reciprocated his enthusiasm. Looking like a deer in the headlights he babbled. "Oh, are we, is this not a moment to, y'know. Go Team Slytherin!... No?... Ok, erm."

Blaise started to chuckle at the tubby boy, then Theo himself started laughing at himself, and soon enough all of them were laughing at the sheer unorthodox nature of the whole situation. A whole bunch of different kids, thrown together and expected to get along. Well, one time it may not have worked, but today, these very different boys were all having a laugh.

Later, each of them was sat on the end of their bed, all playing a game of Wizarding marbles in the middle of the room. Throwing the small orbs into the marble ring from their bed. Gregory Goyle, one of Malfoy's mates, had brought the marbles along and was clearly the most adept. Which was good, because in wizarding marbles, if you missed a shot the marble exploded.

Hadrian cursed the creators of wizarding board games. What was it with those guys and exploding children's games? All of them, bar Greg (who was winning), agreed. But nevertheless they played on into the night.

-/-\-/-\-/-\-

A/N: there are points during this chwpter where I was a bit unsure how to write people and such, but here it is nonetheless. Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed the chapter.


	3. First impressions, first lessons

Puer autem ineffabilem (The Unspeakable boy)

Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series in any way shape or form.

-/-\-/-\-/-\-

The young Unspeakable awoke early, as was his custom. Dressing promptly, he assembled his books for the day. Transfiguration was first, followed by potions, then Herbology. An average day in Hadrian's opinion. He was more than competent in the days subjects by fifth, maybe even sixth year standards, but they weren't the areas in which he really excelled. Now charms he was really good at. Hexes, jinxes, curses, that was when, all modesty aside he blew minds. Indirect attacks and strange spells were his favourite. Maybe that was due to his upbringing in the epicentre of the unknown and bizarre, or maybe it was just an eccentricity.

Passing the time by reading, Hadrian waited for some of the other boys to wake, before going down to breakfast. But when Theo, Blaise and Malfoy were up and ready, they made their way to the great hall. With Gregory and Vincent promising to catch up soon.

They had arrived early for breakfast and Hadrian spotted Daphne at the table, sitting with some other first year Slytherin girls. The four boys took seats next to them, and greeted them all with a friendly "good morning."

They returned the greeting, but Hadrian didn't miss several subtle suspicious glances directed at him. Blood nonsense he guessed. Whoever had started gossiping that fact around the Slytherin first years needed to be set straight, was Hadrian's only reaction to the girls mild furtive glares.

Introductions needed to be gotten out of the way, so the girls introduced themselves. Starting with "Pansy Parkinson" a mousy blonde with a tinny voice, who was very attached to Malfoy (something Hadrian found frankly adorable).

Then there was "Tracy Davis" and "Millicent Bullstrode". Tracy was a astonishingly average looking girl, and Hadrian wasn't really one to judge someone based on looks. But, Tracy was rather unavoidably, plain. Though she did have a lightness to her voice, which made her seem more welcoming and friendly than the other three girls.

Now, even if Hadrian had heard that Millicent Bullstrode, was the most attractive girl in all the world, he would still have trouble believing it. Because with a surname like 'Bullstrode' there is very little that good words can do to counteract such a, 'strong' name. But she seemed at least, reasonable in conversation. Despite features that gave her the look of someone who was perpetually angry.

Hadrian wasn't one to judge on first impressions or appearances at all, but then again, no one is ever truly free from the inevitable conclusion jumping that comes with first meetings.

All the girls clearly had some kind of problem with him though, and they hadn't even been sitting together for more than a minute. Yet Hadrian could take a guess at what was riling them up.

Malfoy had begun chatting idly as they all ate, and asked the girls. "So, have you girls tried any spells yet?"

To which Tracy looked politely surprised and said. "Oh, I thought we weren't allowed to do magic outside of school?"

Pansy dismissed the girls worries by saying. "Oh please Tracy, no pureblood has to pay attention to that."

Tracy adopted a rather cute expression, and questioned. "But, why?"

Hadrian took the conversation from there. "It's to do with how the ministry tracks magic being cast. See, the department of magical law enforcement only really pays attention to magic cast in muggle areas."

Then, Daphne rather poisonously interjected. "So I suppose you are going to fall behind with your spell work over the holidays then."

It was a shame, Hadrian thought, Daphne had seemed quite nice when they first met. He was about to answer, when Malfoy came to his aid. "I'm not so sure about that. Wordsworth was showing us some spells he's already learnt. I suppose your father taught them to you Wordsworth?"

Hadrian smiled and said. "Yes, I suppose he did. I can assure you Daphne, I won't be the one falling behind."

It was a pointless remark, but Hadrian had a idea now, as to who had been badmouthing him. Daphne's spiteful expression confirmed his suspicions. It was eerily quiet in their little area of the table, as the two snakes stared at each other coldly.

Blaise seemed quite uncomfortable at the bitter silence that had engulfed their little group, and tried his best to lighten the mood. "So, t-transfiguration. That's our first lesson. With the Gryffindors. All got your books?... Yeah?"

"Yes." Daphne answered in a level tone that belied some sort of spite.

The rest of breakfast passed in a similar manner. Terse and tense, with some of them (Theo, Tracy and surprisingly Malfoy) trying their best to brighten the mood. But soon enough it was time to head to their first lesson.

Despite casting occasional glances across to the Gryffindor table, Hadrian could not see Eve. But then again, the serpents house seemed to be quite early in general.

So they set off. He, Theo and Blaise walking together to transfiguration while Malfoy walked with Parkinson and the girls. Crabbe and Goyle caught up eventually, and started tailing along behind Malfoy. Soon enough they found themselves walking into the classroom.

Once again, Hadrian's extensive briefing on Hogwarts and it's staff, allowed him to straight away identify the tabby cat sitting on the teachers desk. The animal was Professor Mcgonagall. Registered animagus, Minerva McGonagall, deputy headmistress, head of Gryffindor house, able to turn into a cat... It helped to know these things.

When the Slytherins had all seated themselves, the Gryffindor students ambled in a little while after. Hadrian assumed the lesson would start, and McGonagall would transform. But it did not...

Hadrian was unsure why the lesson wasn't starting, but his uncertainty was put to rest when his sister and the Weasley boy abruptly burst into the room. Decidedly quite late. Although they were none the wiser that their lateness was being duly noted by their professor.

The two were understandably startled, and impressed when McGonagall morphed back to her human self. As were all the other students. Hadrian himself had to make a show of being surprised when the cat shifted back to their Scottish Professor. Because very few first years would've even heard of animagi, let alone be one themselves. Even if Hadrian was unregistered. Still, he had to admire their Professors showmanship, because she certainly knew how to get a classes attention.

Despite the interesting beginning though, the rest of the class passed sluggishly for Hadrian. Having to pretend he was reading 'A beginners guide to transfiguration' was frankly a waste of time.

One tedious yet amusing moment came, when McGonagall was lecturing them on some terribly simple rule of transfiguration. Hadrian was gazing out the window at the overcast sky, whilst running over his advanced transfiguration wand movements in his head. Then the Professor addressed him directly. Patronisingly mistaking his boredom for... Okay, it was boredom, but boredom for a different reason than she thought.

Her brisk highland tone spoke at him sarcastically. "Mr Wordsworth, seeing as you've been so dutifully paying attention. Perhaps you can tell us the exceptions to Gamp's laws of elemental transfiguration? The exceptions I have just been outlining."

There was a ripple of snickering, mainly from the Gryffindors, and Hadrian even spotted Daphne looking quite smug. But that all fell silent when he lazily listed off. "Food. Money. Love. Resurrection. Curse inflicted bodily damage..."

McGonagall seemed pleasantly surprised, then she with a similarly surprised tone. "... Well done Mr Wordsworth. Ten points to Slytherin for getting all five when I only told the class three. For an extra ten points, can you elaborate on two of them? Love and resurrection if you can..."

"Of course Professor. With resurrection, one can, magically, create life." Hadrian drew his wand with a flourish and pointed it into the air. With a swirl and twist of his wrist, he muttered. "Avis." And a small, yellow headed, green bodied budgerigar spluttered out of his wand, upon which it began flapping about the room.

There were a collection of shocked gasps and awed 'oohs' from the class, and McGonagall's eyebrows shot up like she'd just been subjected to a lightning curse.

Hadrian simply continued as if nothing had happened. "But one can't recreate life. If I were to kill this budgie. Then, even though I conjured its life as eay as 1 2 3. I couldn't conjure that same life back again. I could try... But... No... it would be, twisted, it wouldn't work." Hadrian fell silent towards the end, but became astutely aware that he was the centre of attention.

Rather seriously, he thought to himself for a moment. 'This is not helping me complete my task. But I have got seven years to do that in, so I suppose I can have a little education in the meantime...'

So, still watching the budgie fly in circles round the room, Hadrian continued dreamily. "As for love. Well, the exception itself is worded as 'love', but it's a blanket statement for lots of those kinds of feelings. You can't transfigure, un-transfigure, switch or conjure, Love. You can't wave your wand and make someone love you. You can get a sick form of obsession using a love potion, but thats the closest you can get... The exceptions to Gamp's law, are themselves, laws. And like with all laws, If you break 'em, there are consequences."

There was a long silence after that. Although Hadrian did think he heard a girls voice mumble. "Show off." Whether it was a Gryffindor or Slytherin who said it, he couldn't tell. But still, he hadn't felt he was showing off. Maybe a little?... But if he was, it wasn't his fault. They were just, a little behind him in terms of spell work is all.

Not for the first time though, Hadrian felt a little alienated. They had been watching him, listening to him. But it wasn't friendly. It was more akin to the audience at a circus. Maybe this was what Croaker was warning him for, when he had told him about keeping a low profile.

To Hadrian, casual displays of advanced magic and knowledge were something he did all the time when growing up. But a little voice at the back of his mind reminded him. 'Yeah, but you didn't grow up like these kids... Did you...'

Not to mention, these teachers weren't Unspeakable's. They didn't see his complicated magic as proof that the training they were putting him through, was worth all the work. The teachers didn't see the prophecy child, who had fallen out of The Veil on Halloween night, 1981. Why would they!? No, they saw a first year student with too much power.

He was brought out of his revery by McGonagall, saying evenly. "Mr Wordsworth, stay behind after class would you."

"Of course, Professor..." Hadrian politely answered.

Just then a white globule of muck fell from the ceiling, and landed right in the middle of his desk. "Oh, erm, does anybody want a budgie?" Was Hadrian's response. To which one of the Gryffindor girls threw her hand into the air and yelped. "Oh, me!"

The rest of the class passed uneventfully. So at the end, Hadrian mentioned to Theo and Blaise that he'd catch up, before handing over the budgie he had summoned to the girl who wanted it.

Lavender Brown seemed very fond of the newly named, Alfie, and at Lavenders request Professor Mcgonagall conjured a cage for the bird. While telling Lavender she would see that Alfie got to Gryffindor tower safely.

Lavender thanked Hadrian, then scurried off to join her friends who were waiting at the door. These Gryffindor girls did seem awfully fond of giggling, Hadrian reasoned. As they giggled their way out the door, throwing amused glances back at him once or twice, and even... Was that a wink? Blimey.

"Mr Wordsworth, please take a seat, we shan't be too long." The Professor didn't sound like she was suspicious, or angry, or anything bad. Which was s good thing, Hadrian consoled himself.

"First of all, another ten points to Slytherin, for some very impressive magic... Mr Wordsworth, I couldn't help but notice you seemed bored during my lesson?" McGonagall questioned him.

No sense in being dishonest. So Hadrian answered truthfully. "Well Professor. I read through all the books on our reading list. Then some more... But that was years before i'd even been accepted into Hogwarts, ma'am. So, I guess you could say i'm a little ahead, heh." The timidity in his tone was for the most part genuine, as Hadrian was very aware now, that he needed to keep a moderately low. Okay, maybe he could get away with having an, above average profile.

"I see..." The professor mulled his answer over. "I was a lot like you Wordsworth."

'Wait, what?' Were Hadrian's thoughts on the unexpected revelation. He just hoped it didn't show too much on his face.

"Yes, In my first transfiguration lesson I was doing spells way beyond my year. If you find that you keep getting bored in my classes Wordsworth, come talk to me, and i'll see if we can't get you some more challenging work to do during class. Now off you trot."

"Thanks Professor." Hadrian beamed, and off he did trot.

Potions classroom, some time later.

Snape smugly scolded the girl. "Evidently you do not posses your mothers talent, rather your fathers arrogant stupidity. Potter, where would I find a bezoar?"

Once more Hermione'p Grangers hand shot into the air. Eve Potter however, was desperately struggling for an answer. So, seeing an opportunity to rekindle the (apparently forgotten) friendship they had developed on the train, Hadrian surreptitiously drew his wand under the table. Directing it across the room, pointed at Eve, he whispered a spell. "Vox lactum."

After casting the spell, Hadrian quickly muttered under his breath. "The stomach of a goat."

Across the room, the-girl-who-lived started slightly, alarmed when she heard a recognisable voice whisper in her ear. "The stomach of a goat." The girl whipped her head round, but saw that the speaker was on the other side of the room.

The greasy haired Professor rolled his eyes, and began. "You won't find the answer by looking aro-"

But throwing caution to the wind, Eve frantically answered. "A goats stomach, sir?"

The head of Slytherin house paused, surprised. But eventually he drawled out. "Correct... Don't look too pleased with yourself Potter, everyone gets lucky... Potter. What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Hadrian whispered again, and through use of the spell, Eve heard his next to inaudible voice in her ear. "The draught of living death, a potion that essentially mimics death."

Eve studiously answered Snape, though not without a hint of wariness at how she was being given the answers. "The draught of living death, a potion that essentially mimics death... Sir."

'Success' Hadrian concluded, when Snape simply sneered, and continued on with the class.

By the end of it, Hadrian was quite pleased. He had keenly avoided the spotlight in this class. Even going so far as to make a mistake or two. With any luck, his classmates would forget about transfiguration... Or maybe they were just keeping quiet so as too not incur the wrath of Snape... Come to think of it, Daphne had been pointedly avoiding even looking in the vague direction of Hadrian, for the whole lesson. But when he turned to face away from her for whatever reason, the-boy-who-died felt a slight chill run up his spine.

Besides that though, the lesson passed amicably enough. With the occasional bantering between himself, Malfoy, Theo and Blaise. Mostly concerned with what their sullen Professor was thinking at any given time. As the boys found it was quite amusing to impersonate their head of house, in hushed drawls, thus providing a running commentary for their rather laborious lesson.

But it ended soon enough, and Hadrian stepped out of the dark of their classroom, into the only slightly less dimly lit dungeon corridor.

He stopped, to finish putting his books away. So his three housemates ambled down the hall, going slowly to allow him to catch up easily enough when he was done.

Then out of left field, Eve Potter stalked up to the messy haired Slytherin. Stopping resolutely in front of him, she crossed her arms defiantly and demanded. "Okay, what was that."

Hadrian simply grinned, playing dumb. "What was what?"

The bespectacled girl-who-lived sighed, and exasperated. "In potions, you gave me the answers somehow. Why?"

Hadrian's expression grew steady, becoming honest and genuine."... On the train you said I was your friend. Friends help each other... If it was wrong of me to assume that then-"

Eve suddenly lost her steely veneer, dropping her defiant expression and becoming apologetic, seeming a little guilty. "Wait, no, sorry. I'm being ungrateful. Thanks and all but..."

Up until then he had seemed ready to explode, and now was when the red haired Ron Weasley violently interrupted "Don't let him take you in Eve. He's a Slytherin."

Hadrian wanted to roll his eyes at the freckled boys ignorance, but tried to remain reasonable. "So...?" He commented.

Ron looked like he was about to answer, but Eve raised her hand to silence him, before she explained. "What Ronald means is, why help your rival house?"

The Unspeakable boys reply was simple. "Like I said. Friend... Look, being in Slytherin doesn't make me a bad person."

Ron chose then to launch into some sort of rant once more. "Don't be ridiculous. If thats the case, why didn't you help Neville?"

If Hadrian could roll his eyes anymore, his green orbs would do a complete rotation in their sockets. "Because I don't know Neville." He briefly regarded Neville in politeness. "Nice to meet you by the way Neville."

The boy, Neville, gave a little wave and replied. "Hi"

Then Hadrian continued. "Also, sorry Neville but I can't stop your cauldron from exploding from across the room. Also, Neville wasn't being hounded by the Professor so much... Seriously Potter, what is up with Snape's grudge against you?"

Eve seemed to have had her frustrated curiosity sated. So she laughed lightly and answered. "i really don't know. I think my dad and him were at school or something? Dad, or mum maybe mentioned it once."

Weasley didn't seem convinced. "Eve!? How can you listen to that slimy snake? He's in stinking Slytherin, it's obviously some sort of trap. He's trying t-"

"20 points from Gryffindor, Weasley. For insulting not only my house itself, but a member of my house too." Greasy hair, crooked nose, dressed like a bat, permanent drawling tone. Hadrian didn't care, his head of house had style.

Weasley looked like he'd seen a Dementor, he was so pale. Eve and Neville displayed similar expressions, albeit to lesser degrees. "You best get to your next lesson, Wordsworth. You three however, remain here for a moment." Was Snape's cold tone, though Hadrian could sense a silent glee in his demeanour.

"Right away Professor." Hadrian replied, before nodding to Eve and Neville, then turning around, and leaving.

He caught up with the Slytherins soon enough, and Theo asked him. "Hey, what kept you?"

The proceeding explanation brought about a round of laughter with the young boys, as they leisurely strolled to lunch.

Lunch was an ordinary affair, and before he knew it, the first year Slytherin boys were getting up to go to the next lesson. Hadrian briefly excused himself to use the loo, and told the others to save him a seat in the greenhouse.

After his toilet break, Hadrian made it outside and was greeted with a dismal landscape. It was raining, rampantly. It wasn't heavy rain, but it was relentless. Little drips of water falling from the lead coloured sky at a unwaveringly fast speed.

Casting a quick charm or two over himself and on his shoes, Hadrian started the rather long walk down to the greenhouses. Though his feet drew no mud from the ground, and he remained perfectly dry on his way to greenhouse 1 for herbology with the Hufflepuffs.

Hadrian was calmly walking down the hilly incline that led from the castle to the collection of greenhouses, when a Hufflepuff gril hurried past him. She was shrinking into herself, obviously trying to escape the full brunt or the horrible rain.

She had just made it past him, when her foot caught on a particularly slick patch of grass. Her foot slipped out from under her, and she wheeled over to land face first in the mud.

Hadrian felt a horrible pang of pity for the girl, as she scrambled to stand back up, but only succeeded in falling down once more. The sniffling girl was on the ground, on the edge of tears, when Hadrian took ahold of her arm, and firmly brought her to her feet.

The girl seemed very embarrassed, but apparently too upset to care. She just made a keening sound that was probably intended to be a thanks, but due to her dishevelled state it came out as more of a crying whimper. She started to head back up the hill toward the castle. But, feeling intensely sorry for the now completely mud coated girl, before she could get more than a step away, Hadrian had drawn his wand. He then cast a quick succession of charms on her.

The charms were a cleaning charm "Scourgify", which immediately un-muddied her. A drying charm, that did what it said on the tin, and dried her of the rain "Tergeo". Then finally a warming charm "Caloris".

She stopped walking away, and just stood facing away from him. The Unspeakable boy assumed that her expression was probably quite befuddled right now. His assumption was proven right when she turned to face him, clutching her bag of books to her chest, with a few tears trailing down her face and mixing with the rain.

The Hufflepuff was a small girl, with tangled light brown hair, that fell down evenly to either side and just above her cheeks. Her wide blue eyes were hazed with confusion. An expression that made her cute features seem to be generally rather flustered.

However, she didn't seem to be saying anything, which resulted in the two of them just standing in the rain for a bit. The girl obviously occupying her mind with being puzzled, and Hadrian just observing the pretty girl and wondering what she was thinking exactly.

The girl seemed to be getting soaked through, and Hadrian remembered he hadn't cast a water repelling charm on her. Which somewhat made his earlier efforts futile. So after casting another drying spell, followed by a water repelling charm, Hadrian decided to say, well, something.

"So... Erm... You okay?" A decision he immediately regretted. Damn it, this was supposed to be when he said something amazingly witty and totally cool, making him seem even more dashing to the girl he had just saved. Okay, saved was maybe too strong a word. But still, Hadrian had heard enough radio plays on the wizarding wireless to know that this situation was, while not cliche, still rather classic.

"Uhhm, yeah... Thanks." The Hufflepuff girl said finally. Her voice was perfectly nice, in Hadrian's opinion. A slight Welsh accent made her speech sound just that little bit lyrical. "I... Are you, like, a third year? Or something?" She asked, wiping at her eyes briefly, now getting over the experience everyone dreads.

"Oh, no. I'm first year. You too right?" Hadrian questioned kindly.

"Yeah. How'd, um, how'd you know? eheh." She nervously asked. 'Okay' Hadrian thought. 'This girl and nervous laughter, is almost too cute.'

"Well, I recognised you a little, from the sorting. Bones? Was it?" That's when Hadrian cued his own memory. While he hadn't been paying too much attention to the sorting ceremony, how could he miss a surname like Bones? This Hufflepuff, shyly shifting from foot to foot a few steps in front of him, was a relative of Amelia Bones, head of the department of magical law enforcement.

"Yeah. Susan Bones. Hi." She introduced herself. Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Hi... I'm Hadrian Wordsworth." God, his voice sounded so awkward. Why couldn't he just introduce himself and talk normally. Like he did, I don't know, all the time!?

"Hi..." She repeated. "Thanks, again. You're pretty good with magic." She complimented sweetly.

"It was no problem." He answered. Then, feeling that since she was nice enough to compliment him, he should do the same. And before he could stop himself, or at least think of something better to say, he had added. "And you're pretty..."

The look that came across her face was certainly one for the book. The shade of red she exhibited made Hadrian simultaneously amused and embarrassed. But he didn't miss the smile that dawned on her face at the remark. "I mean, erm, eheh. We should, get to Herbology or we'll, y'know, be late." He followed up when Susan seemed incapable of speaking.

"Haha, yeah." She laughed, smiling brightly. The shock of the situation having washed away with the rain.

Hadrian and Susan then walked together to the greenhouse, where they stepped in, both completely dry. They looked at each other quickly, but both shyly looked away soon after, before they split to take seats with their friends, mumbling in unison before they parted "see ya."

Throughout Herbology, Hadrian kept glancing over to where Susan sat with a bunch of the other Hufflepuff girls. And occasionally he'd catch her looking over at him, it was definitely something that made him smile, and made the lesson all that more enjoyable.

These glances however, did not go unnoticed.

After dinner at the Slytherin common room.

Hadrian, Malfoy, Theo and Blaise were sat around the fire, occupying the rooms central armchairs and table. They were meant to be working on some potions homework, which they had been given (rather unfairly, Hadrian thought) in their first lesson. It wasn't much, but the boys were still getting distracted by the topic they were discussing rather amusedly. Even from afar, it was evident that Hadrian was the focus of some joke or laddish teasing.

"Whatever, whatever, hahaha. Tell you what, I don't even care, you guys ar-"' Hadrian was trying to reason with the other three it seemed, but failing due to the humour he was finding with the whole conversation.

Daphne had walked over in the meantime, and was standing before the set of chairs the four boys were lounging and laughing on. She had apparently overheard at least some of their talk. "What? You don't care that you're a halfblood? You're in Slytherin, you should be ashamed." The way she spoke, it seemed like she had assumed what they were talking about, and was trying to join in the teasing.

The four boys went still. Before Blaise quietly said. "... W-we, weren't making fun of him f-for that."

Theo tried to lighten the tone once more by amusedly chiming. "No, erm, ha, we were making fun of him because he fancies Susan Bones."

The boys burst into laughter. Even Hadrian started in with a chuckle as he half heartedly laughed out. "Ugh, give it a rest.."

Then Daphne brought the mood crashing back down. "Well she is a halfblood, so it would seem you're great for each other."

The atmosphere went cold in an instant. This was the last straw. Hadrian had had enough of Daphne's passive aggressive blood supremacy. He swiftly rose up from his armchair, and got right in Daphne's face. Almost nose to nose with the suddenly alarmed girl, he looked her in the eye and venomously told her. "Listen, Greengrass. If you have a problem with me, come out and say it. Don't give me all this rubbish with your little jabs and comments. Just 'cos you're a girl, doesn't mean I won't hex that frigid look right off your face."

The girl was frozen. Then she stumbled backwards, one of her legs hitting the table she was in front of. She clumsily took a step back and to the left, with an exceedingly affronted look on her face. She didn't seem so ready to besmirch him now, and when she spoke, her sarcasm and spite were gone. "I... I, well, fine..." Then she swiftly took her leave into the girls dormitory, her long dark hair covering her face.

Hadrian sat back down icily, a bitter expression left adorning his face. It was quiet for a moment or two. Then Theo began, in a sing son voice. "Haddy and Susie, sitting in a tree..."

The boy-who-died smiled reluctantly, and Malfoy picked up the round the three had been tormenting Hadrian with, ever since the end Herbology.

They didn't get their potions homework done for quite a while. But the four friends did have a right old laugh.

-/-\-/-\-/-\-

A/N: Got to say, thanks for the reviews, favourites and follows! It really brings a smile to my face. :)

Stay tuned for more, because I keep getting ideas for this fic that I can't wait to put into action.


	4. Dreams and memories

Puer autem ineffabilem (The Unspeakable boy)

Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Harry Potter series.

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The voices tortured him in the night...

"These brothers three" "I played chess with death, yesterday" "Lie with dogs and thou shalt rise with fleas" "20, 5, 6, 2, 4, condemnable actions of" "This is the deepest grave" "they are fickle things" "A baby boy..." "Fate dangles the threads of our lives, and sometimes they get tangled with one another"

Hadrian awoke suddenly, in a cold sweat, shivering beneath his covers. He had dreamt again, something he rarely did. Whenever he did dream though, the visions were never normal dreams. It was always the same though. He would find himself suspended in some unknowable space. All around him was grey mist and silky fog, and through the miasma were visible certain, shapes. The silhouettes of people. Dark shrouds that moved about, a few feet from him. No distinguishing features were visible on them, and to Hadrian they were just wraiths.

In the dreams, Hadrian floated in the mist for a long while, and after a time the shadowy figures began to become visible. Through this they did nothing but staring at him with their invisible eyes. The only sound was that of a howling wind, yet no sensation gave the impression that there was any air current.

Eventually, the voices would start, the figures would move closer, and Hadrian would catch their hushed speech. What they said was incomprehensible, merely fragments of conversations long since had. But Hadrian heard them nonetheless, whispered to him with hoarse voices, having little regard for whether he understood them or not.

The voices of the veil whispered to him in his sleep. They muttered hideous nothings to him, nut they weren't intended for him, no, they were for someone else, somewhere else, somewhen else. But they were heard by him regardless.

The-boy-who-died dreamt of death and its servants. Not every night, but it was worse that way. With these dreams being seemingly random, infrequent, this meant he never knew when they would haunt him, on which night. The voices and shapes terrified him, for they had an aura of death about them. Which is why he awoke, shivering, cold and fearful.

There was no sense in trying to go back to sleep. Asides from it being morning, he didn't want to return to his dreadful slumber. So he got up, got dressed, and waited for the others to rise, so they could walk to breakfast together. He sat on his bed, and waited, hugging his knees to his chest, and trying not to remember his dream. The only dream he'd ever known.

Out in the Hogwarts grounds, after breakfast

The ground was still wet from the previous days rainfall, but the sun was out and shining down beautifully. The morning air was cold and quite nippy, but served as an excellent wake up call to the lazier first years.

The reason why they were outside, was for a flying lesson. Something Hadrian had been greatly anticipating. Along with his friends.

Malfoy and Theo had been bragging all morning, about how they would be by far the best in the class, since they had both been flying brooms for years.

Hadrian didn't say so, but he was more than confident in his flying ability, as he had done so before as part of his training.

There was one particular mission that came to mind as well. It was in Brazil, hunting a Mapinguari with Croaker for the Department.

Roughly one year ago. Brazil, Amazon basin, deep in the Jungles. A place the department of Mysteries refers to as 'The lungs of Magic'

Harry sped over the treetops, the foliage that passed beneath him whipping violently in the rush of air as he shot by. With the wind blasting over him, and the intense heat unnoticeable due to his speed, Harry barely heard Croaker call from a few broomlengths behind him. "Don't lose sight of it!"

Harry received the message, and he hadn't lost sight of their quarry. A magical beast known as a Mapinguari. The creature resembled a giant sloth, but in movement it was anything but sloth-like. Harry had his eyes on the thing, and it was moving fast.

It thundered through the upper canopy of the jungle, leaping from branch to branch, occasionally bursting out of the canopy in a flurry of torn leaves and bark, only to drop back beneath the green covering. Like a dolphin of the rainforest, the Mapinguari moved like lightning through the trees, trying to out run the two Unspeakable's.

Harry drew his wand, and started tracking the white blur of fur. But it only became visible for moments at a time, before becoming obscured within the dense jungle. He followed it with his wand for a moment, and when he saw an opening. "Stupefy!"

The spell found it's mark, but the creature did not go down, or even slow. Something was amiss.

Croaker had been falling further behind on his inferior racing broom, so he called out to Harry once more, after seeing his failed spell. "The briefing, Harry! It's curse resistant!"

"Got it!" Harry yelled back, over the rush of the wind. Then he did something a little rash. He dived down into the trees.

Angling his broom down, the-boy-who-died dove through the canopy of greenery. Vines, branches and leaves raked his face, drawing lines of painful scratches and cuts. Thankfully though his robes were reinforced, and he was wearing flying goggles, so his eyes and body were protected.

He veered up immediately after the dive and was now flying in the forest itself. After aligning his course, he had to swerve out the way of a tree, then swerve to avoid another. He was beginning to think that this was a far stupider idea than he had first anticipated, when he got another, even stupider idea. Pointing his wand at the thick mesh of sticks and flora in front of him, he waved his wand and cast. "Reducto."

The spell flew forth and shredded the obstructions in front of him. Through the newly created shortcut he could spot the Mapingusri tearing ahead.

Still going at full speed, Harry was now easily gaining on it, and as he etched ever closer, he levelled his wand at the hulking creature.

"Incarcerus." Ropes blitzed out of Harry's wand, cannoning towards the Mapinguari. The magical binds came into contact with the creature, and snapped themselves around its legs, arms and torso. Constricting it tightly.

The beast let out a wailing moan, as it plummeted towards the jungle floor. Harry pulled his broom up, and looped around swiftly so that he redirected towards the ground, as the Mapinguwri was still falling.

Stabbing his wand at the tumbling, wailing creature, Harry incanted another spell "Securus". Entwined cords shot out of his wand, flying down and coming into contact with the Mapinguari. As soon as the entwined cords touched it, they latched on, holding fast.

Harry forced his broom with all his might, to pull up, whilst he still kept hold of his wand. His wand which was connecting the cords, the Mapinguari and himself.

But he had vastly underestimated his own strength. The weight of the giant sloth-like creature pulled him off his broom, and Harry felt like his arm had been wrenched out of its socket. Then he was falling, his broom spiralling away into a tree.

The Mapinguari fell through a overhanging of vines and entangled branches, and now Harry could see the forest floor clearly. Giving up on the Mapinguari, Harry swung his other arm down and took ahold of his wand. Now holding it in his non-wand wielding, but relatively pain free left hand, he disengaged the 'securus' spell, spun around, and pointed it up towards the sky.

"Aucaeris!" He cried desperately.

In an instant his descent slowed, as the invisible force of the parachute charm took effect. He heard the sobering thump of the Mapinguari hitting the ground, and Harry looked down to see the bound creature lying on the dirt.

Hoping for the best, Harry looked back up as he drifted to the ground. Seeing the tunnel that the creatures fall had carved through the foliage, from the canopy to the floor.

He landed softly by the side of the great magical animal, and simply stood staring at it, catching his breath. "Please don't be dead, please don't be dead." He mumbled to himself.

It didn't move for a while, but then, Harry heard it make some sort of sound. A groaned, pained, but alive. "mwurhhhhhh"

'Phew' Harry thought 'phew... It's not dead... Mission accomplished...' Sighing deeply, Harry sank down to the ground. Holding his head, he let out a groan not too dissimilar from that of the Mapinguari.

A voice then interrupted him. "Well done, Harry, that was some good work. All those flying lessons paid off it seems." Croaker said as he touched down, holding Harry's broom in one hand.

The boy-who-died, and then did stuff like this that would probably get him killed, again, groaned in response and answered. "Thanks, sir."

Present day, Hogwarts grounds.

So yeah, Hadrian thought he was actually pretty good at flying.

But, they'd barely picked up their brooms, when a Gryffindor boy, Neville, started having some trouble. The poor guy had got on his broom and begun floating up into the air, apparently uncontrollably.

While most of the students seemed worried, Hadrian and his friends just found the situation quite funny. As Madam Hooch tried to calm the distressed, airborne boy down. After all, Neville wasn't in any real danger, not unless he was particular stupid or unlucky. Also, he wasn't so high as to where a fall would be lethal, and Hadrian assumed that Madam Hooch, their flying instructor, would know a cushioning charm incase any student ever fell off their broom.

Hadrian stopped finding the situation amusing a few moments later, when he was proven wrong on both counts. Neville had flown face first into the castle wall, and Madam Hooch had not used any kind of charm to slow his descent. Not that she needed to, the castles crenelations had done that for her.

The poor lad was carted off to the hospital wing by Madam Hooch, and after they'd left, Hadrian spotted something Neville had dropped. It was his wand. Such a vital tool to a wizard should not be so easily misplaced, but from what Hadrian had seen and heard about Neville Longbottom, it didn't seem too surprising.

Hadrian quickly scooped up the wand, and took off after Madam Hooch and the injured boy. He didn't spare a look back, but he did hear Malfoy's signature, smug laugh. It didn't warrant any attention though, and Hadrian could discover what the blond Slytherin found so funny when he got back. though it didn't take a genius to know what Malfoy found funny right then.

Hadrian returned to the class with Madam Hooch, after having accompanied her and Neville to the hospital wing. Because Hadrian would be damned if the boy didn't need s friend after that rather embarrassing mishap.

So the flying class resumed, but not without Hadrian noticing the absence of one particular Gryffindor girl-who-lived.

But when Malfoy snickered to him, as Madam Hooch talked about emergency deceleration in modern flying brooms. Hadrian had a suspicion that something, probably bad had happened to Potter, and that Malfoy had had something to do with it. After all, the phrase "you'll never guess what happened", when said so gleefully and sadistically, is rarely an omen of anything good.

After lunch, in defence against the dark arts.

Theo whispered to him, halfway through the lesson, when professor Quirrell had his back turned. "I hate to say it, but Daphne was right when she said to reserve judgment... This is boring as, as... A big, boring, bore..." Hadrian simply sighed, slumping his shoulders in defeated agreement.

Defence against the dark arts ought to have a fearless, world wise Professor teaching it, Hadrian thought. Someone like Croaker maybe, or any member of the Department for that matter. Heck, Hadrian reckoned he could have done a better job than this guy.

Professor Quirinus Quirrell was a quivering wreck, and the Unspeakable boy could only feel sorry for him, wondering what could've happened to a man to make him as nervous as this. It wasn't just a stutter though, as the slightest sudden provocation would cause the Professor to jump out of his skin. And effectively understanding what he was stuttering, made the class even duller than Quirrell's tedious teaching methods were already making it.

Being only first year, there was no practical element in this lesson. That would only come into play half way through the term, when the students were deemed ready to cast such 'dangerous' magic.

Little did any of them know, that Hadrian could've most likely given their shaky professor a run for his money, when it came to dark magic and defence.

The summer before Hogwarts. United States of America, New York City, the catacombs underneath St Patricks cathedral in Little Italy.

Roscoe Grover, dark wizard, leader of a cult that worshipped a sect of ancient Gods. The kind of Gods that required sacrifices, according to Grover.

The sixty-four year old man had passed through England recently, and stolen an ancient star chart while he was in the country illegally. A particularly valuable star chart known as the 'caderse dhemlar die woegrynn'. An artefact so old, that any written language on it was nigh untranslatable. Everything about this chart was old, and mysterious.

The star chart was a object under the jurisdiction of the Department of Mysteries, as it had led to several disturbing predictions by astronomers. All of which had proven to become true thus far. The chart itself held several magical properties, the foremost being that the arrangement of the noted constellations, changed every five to eight years. It was under protective enchantments to prevent it from falling apart, for the chart was centuries old, and presented such incredible value for the predictions that could be made by analysing it.

But Roscoe Grover and his followers, had broken into the observatory that housed the chart, murdered the staff there, and stolen it. Through the use of the imperius curse, and other dark means, the cult had made off with the ancient parchment and fled to America.

The Department of Mysteries had therefore sent a division of Nobodies to reclaim it, whilst keeping the valuable document out of the hands of the American wizarding government.

The mission, while important, was not deemed excessively dangerous. So Harry was chosen to accompany the Nobodies as part of his training.

Infiltrating the catacombs was easy. With a few, sparingly used, experimental spells courtesy of the departments research & development wing, the protective wards were down quickly and quietly. They weren't particularly well done either, so the division rationalised that these catacombs were merely a stopping point, and not the actual hideout.

After making their way through the grey concrete tunnels, each member of the team under the effects of disillusionment charms, rendering the if not invisible, then at least very hard to spot. They emerged from the confined hallways into a large, bare chamber. There was one, glassy eyed guard in the room, standing beside a wrought iron door. The cultist, was dressed in regular muggle clothes. And Harry suspected that he might just be a random muggle, that had been enslaved by the imperius curse. Either way, they couldn't afford to raise the alarm.

The division worked in perfect tandem, just as they had agreed. Harry's 'silencio' hit the guard first, as was intended. Then one of the other Nobodies let loose with a 'stupefy'. This caused the man to crumple to the ground, unconscious. All this had taken place in under a second.

This, in Harry's opinion, was a successful start to a mission.

Back in the present, Defence against the dark arts class, Hogwarts

"Oi? Haddy? Haddy?... Hey, Haddy!"

The voice snapped him out of his reminiscing as quick as a flash. Hadrian struggled to comprehend what was happening, so absorbed had he been in his own memories. He turned to see Theo standing next to him, expectantly. Turning his head further he could see Blaise and Malfoy waiting wt the door to the almost empty classroom.

Having gotten his attention, Theo continued casually. "Mate, you coming? Lessons over."

"Oh, right, sure." Hadrian replied, while hurriedly packing his untouched book into his bag, and walking out the class with his friends.

later on

Dinner passed uneventfully, and Hadrian found his mind turning to his mission. His entire purpose for being here. He had a plan formulating, but it needed some time to simmer, so he could assess it with a more objective approach.

Evening came, when Hadrian and the Slytherin boys eventually went to sleep, with Hadrian silently wishing for a dreamless sleep.

-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-

A/N: My, my... I really had very little clue with this chapter, so it's kind of just a big trip down memory lane. I'm taking the past exposition quite slowly, but in this chapter I didn't have much that could happen, so I dipped into Harry's life with the DoM. Regardless, I hope you still enjoyed it, an experiment though it may be. Thanks for reading :)


	5. Subtle schemes and subterfuge

Puer autem ineffabilem (The Unspeakable boy)

Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with the Harry Potter series.

-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-

Hadrian had woken up calmly, and immediately set about initiating his plan. Admittedly it was only the preparation phase, but that shouldn't take too long. So before the others woke, he picked up a quill, and his inconspicuous notebook. Putting ink to paper, he wrote.

'Need a catalyst. Suggestions? HW'

There were about ten minutes between when he wrote that in, and when the reply appeared. Time he had spent thinking how he was going to get the key to his plan, into Gryffindor common room.

'What kind? SC'

'Inherently magical. Powerful. HW'

'Dark? SC'

'Doesn't have to be. HW'

'Dragon-fire ash. Dementor's shroud. Unicorn bone. SC'

'Can you provide any one? HW'

'Quickest is shroud. Suspicious though. SC'

'Won't be caught. Send? HW'

'Soon. Password will be my first name. SC'

'Affirmative. HW'

'Send a full report by Sunday. SC'

'Will do. HW'

Hadrian set down his quill, and stowed away his two-way journal (because it is so not a diary, no matter how much Malfoy teases). Smiling in that satisfied way, he turned his head to look toward the other occupants of the dorm, who now seemed to be stirring.

It looked as if it could be an enjoyable academic day, if Hadrian did not know what would inevitably happen. That he would find himself invariably bored with the work, as the teachers proceeded to teach the first year curriculum. They taught it to a class of first years, so there wasn't really a problem, apart from the fact that there was a wolf in first years robes. Hadrian just supposed he'd have to endure. Maybe he could work on the two spells and enchantments he planned to use to keep an eye on Potter.

Later, in charms with the Ravenclaws.

So to spy on Potter, Hadrian had poured over his own personal stash of books. One book he had brought along, and slipped in-between the pages of his 'Standard book of spells grade 1'. His handbook was titled, 'Being an Immaterial: Your guide to working as a DoM agent.'. It was a slim volume he'd received in his training with the espionage subdivision of the Department of mysteries, the Immaterial's. The book was of course, practically soaked in concealing enchantments and spells, preventing anyone but the owner from deciphering its contents. Even so, Hadrian had sat right at the back of the class, so he wasn't at risk of being snooped on.

The two spells he had found were remote observation spells, that needed to be attached to objects. Sort of enchantments, that would require a great deal of magical power to even cast, let alone maintain. The spells were, 'Liceamentis', the remote listening spell, and 'Speculatorem', the remote viewing spell. Although the incantations and wand movements were not the hard part of the spell. It was obtaining what he would need for the spell to even be viable, that would be more tricky.

He would need six objects, three for each spell. The first of which would be the item through which he could see or hear (depending on the spell). This object could be anything, as long as it was opaque. Hadrian figured that he would make a simple book his 'camera', although that was more likely to be moved. Though if there was a well placed bookshelf in the Gryfinndor common room, that would help. Also, he didn't like to stereotype but the Gryffindors weren't exactly renowned for their relentless studying and perusal of textbooks. He just had to choose the right one, one no one in their right mind would read, or even touch.

For his listening object, that was more difficult. That would have to be something he could plant on Potter. Something she either wouldn't notice, or something she wouldn't want to be without. That would take some more consideration. Maybe he could get her a gift... A wand holster? That might work...

The second type of object, was one for him, and would be the object through which he would view and listen, to what the first object of the respective spell could 'see' or 'hear'. Because the good thing about this spell, is that it made no changes to either receptive objects, as there was very little magical power bestowed to them making them hard to spot or detect. Not that anyone would even think to look for this spell, as obscure and unused as it was. Now, with the object for the Speculatorem viewing spell, the only rule was that it had to have a moderately reflective surface. This wasn't the case for the listening counterpart, but the viewing object would need something on which it could project the images the first object was seeing. Hadrian figured a classic glass orb would do the trick, or maybe something less conspicuous, like a mirror. Either way this object didn't need to be inconspicuous, as he would be the only one to see it.

The third type of object was the most important. The one which made this spell quite difficult to use, not to mention expensive. There was the added benefit that it was very unknown, thanks to the effort of the Department of Mysteries, who liked to keep their secrets, secret. This third object acted as an anchor and a catalyst for the magical power used in the spell, and the object needed to be an item of almost inherant magical power. Croakers suggestion had been the most common kinds used, as all were imbued with residual magic. The only problem was the availability of items of such a nature and power. Luckily, working for the ministry had its benefit. And even though the other departments had little to no idea what the DoM did, they at least had enough sense to know it was important. Thus, for its availability, a Dementors shroud had been chosen. A dark item to be sure, but the origin did not matter, nor did its effects, as they would soon give way to the enchantment itself.

A Dementors shroud, was a piece of cloth, torn from a Dementors robe. Given the nature of the soul sucking guards of azkaban, a Dementors shroud inherited certain depressing qualities from its former wearer. Literally making who holds it feel increasingly hopeless and bereft of happiness. But when subjected to the Speculatorem and Liceamentis spells, the shroud would cease emitting these qualities, and they would take a backseat to its new purpose. As a container for magical power, and a transmitter between the other two objects.

Hopefully the shroud would arrive tomorrow, and he could put his plan into action. He'd have to talk to Calypso about infiltrating the Gryfinndor common room. Because if he couldn't do it, he was sure his garter snake compatriot could.

A collective clamouring of "wingardium leviosa!" brought him away from his planning. Slipping his Immaterial handbook back into his bag, Hadrian drew his wand, and lazily joined in.

"Wingardium leviosa."

And so the lesson continued. But all Hadrian could think about were his plans... That, and the advanced work he was doing off his own back... Maybe a thought or two, concerning a certain Hufflepuff girl crossed his mind as well... Oh, and he was wondering what'd be for lunch too.

At lunch conversation turned mainly to quidditch, as Hadrian discovered what had happened in yesterdays flying lesson, when he had briefly left. Where Malfoy had been quite happy with the lesson yesterday, today his blond friends mood seemed to be soured.

His three friends told him the news that Potter had been given the position of seeker, after McGonagall had witnessed what transpired in their lesson. Which was, from his three friends description, 'Malfoy playing around with Nevilles rememberall, and Potter being a buzzkill'. Which had culminated in a broom chase, and Potter catching said rememberall. Hadrian suspected that there may be a little more to the story than his friends told, but he couldn't be bothered to call them out on their storytelling bias.

Regardless, he was surprised, but couldn't help feeling a little annoyed at the blatant favouritism and rule flaunting from the Gryffindor head of house. Apparently McGonagall had missed the owl that said first years weren't allowed to play quidditch. Still, Hadrian felt proud of his sister, and couldn't wait until he could tryout for the Slytherin team next year. He wasn't being too arrogant, but Hadrian was certain he could get a place on the team. Plus, Slytherins current seeker was leaving next year, so that position would be up for grabs. Nevertheless, Hadrian would have to catch Eve and congratulate her next time he saw her.

The rest of the meal passed with much bickering and bantering, as it was revealed that Malfoy supported the Appleby Arrows. Who were the longstanding rivals of Hadrians favourite team, The Wimbourne Wasps. But after a lot of tally taking of best wins and losses, and debate as to who out of the three boys, teams was better, him and his friends left lunch. Where they made their way to the endless chasm of a lesson that was, history of magic with Professor Binns.

After an era and a half, the class finally ended, and all students practically flew out of the class, brimming with unspent energy. The rabble flooded out into the corridor, and started making their way towards the great hall. A whole double period of history of magic, really had a way of working up ones appetite.

Among the swarm were the four Slytherin boys, who despite their short time together at the school, had become quite the tight knit group of friends. Hadrian, Malfoy, Zabini and Nott, had a small burgeoning reputation as the Slytherin first years to watch out for. Mostly due to Malfoys habit of saying the kind of things that made people hate him. It wasn't the blonds fault, entirely. It was clear he had a significant reputation to live up to. But to the other three it was evident, Draco was desperately trying to fight to get out from under his families shadow. He just didn't quite know how to go about doing that.

Zabini was a different case, a quiet bundle of nerves, reluctant to get in trouble or ruffle any feathers. But he was a very intelligent guy nonetheless, and by far the least prejudiced of all the Slytherins. With his short, neat black hair, timid, sky blue eyes and polite attitude, Blaise provided their little quartet with a much needed grounding factor.

Then there was Theo, who was a bouncing, slightly overweight ball of energy. Constantly chatting away, and suggesting things they should do, such as pranks, games, more pranks. Okay, mainly pranks... Highly inadvisable, unviable practical jokes. Such as turning every staircase in Hogwarts into a slide, by using the 'Glissendo' spell. A spell which flattened steps into a ramp. Hadrian knew that spell, but told Theo that a place as highly enchanted and magical as Hogwarts, would be protected against stuff like that. So it wouldn't work... Probably...

Then there was Hadrian's odd little reputation, as a genius kid who didn't seem to care about his lessons one bit. The difference between him and the other students who protested the work, was that Hadrian didn't hide his disinterest during class. He also didn't seem to need to. Numerous times teachers had tried to call him out on his apathy, and every time Hadrian had shot back the answer and more. Causing the teacher to simply gape a little, then either award house points, vaguely reprimand him, or move on. Sometimes all three. But his repeated displays of knowledge, had marked him as something of a go to guy for help with homework amongst the Slytherin firsties. The other houses first years just seemed to treat him with caution or puzzlement. Apart from some of the Hufflepuff and even Gruffindor girls, who often erupted into bouts of giggling whenever he looked their way.

So the four friends were beginning to settle into their lives at Hogwarts. Each one did it differently, but they all got along well. And Hadrian felt lucky that he had found such friends here. Mission or not, he was still a kid, a student at school, and having good friends was a joy he had been deprived for most of his life. So he was grateful. Not that he'd ever tell the intolerable idiots that. No, he didn't want to engorge their egos any more.

After dinner, Hadrian excused himself. Which had been a mistake because, ever since that first Herbology lesson, he wnd Susan Bones had been exchanging glances across their classes. Though neither had said anything, both being young, nervous and entirely unsure of what to say to one another. And this had provided his friends with ample ammunition with which to tease him.

The three started goading him as he got up to go, with Theo jovially saying "Say hello to the Hufflepuffs for us." And Malfoy continuing, as Hadrian walked away "you and Susan have a nice time." Then Blaise joining in, stuttering as he did, but having a laugh all the same "Be b-back, before 7."

Hadrian walked off, and called back to them a simple retort, as he had given up on witty retorts a while back. Smiling and laughing as he did so, he said. "Whatever."

His smile lasted all the way to the second floor boys toilets. Where he sat in one of the cubicles, locked the door, and did nothing but take out one of his books and read.

An hour or so passed, and Hadrian put away his reading material to begin. Twirling his wand over himself, he incanted. "Abeo cultivate." And cast the Disillusionment charm. Soon after which his body began to change colour to match his surroundings. When he was effectively camouflaged, he exited the cubicle, and the toilets. Where he made his way to the stairwell, making sure to keep to the walls so that if any students were wandering about this long after dinner, he wouldn't accidentally bump into them.

The journey up to the restricted third floor, was quick and simple. And soon enough, Hadrian was standing at the entrance to the floors main corridor.

Strangely he didn't spot any kind of warning sign, or obvious security charms. So he waved his wand and cast a broad "specialis revelio" but nothing was revealed. Which seemed odd, hadn't Dumbledore warned that a gruesome death awaited those that trespassed here? Maybe the old geezer was hoping that the threat would ward off any snoopers. Well no such luck. Hadrian walked slowly along the corridor, peering into the classrooms along the hallway, and finding nothing out of the ordinary so far.

Unless whatever was secured here was very well, or very cleverly hidden. Hadrian would say that this corridor exhibited nothing out of the ordinary. That was until he reached a door at the end of the corridor, which when he turned the handle, found was locked. The only locked door in this restricted area. Did Dumbledore even know how to throw off unwanted intruders? Because the best defence, as taught to him by the department, was every defence. Misdirection, concealment, offence, etc etc. 'His loss', Hadrian thought while he cast 'alohamora' and unlocked the door. When he did, his opinion on the corridors security was amended slightly.

In the large, empty, grey stone classroom before him, was a very large, very scary, very three headed, dog. A Cerberus. Luckily, it was sleeping, but a Cerberus nonetheless. That was some serious protection right there, and judging by the trapdoor beneath its paws, this wasn't the only defence. Because if you went to the trouble to get a Cerberus to guard your stuff, then you obviously had a great desire to keep whatever that stuff may be, no matter what.

A gruesome death awaits those who go to the third floor corridor. That seemed much truer now, and far less hollow. Hadrian calmly realised, that he should start to take the eccentric old headmaster a little more seriously from now on.

Not prepared enough to investigate further, Hadrian slowly closed the door, re-locked it, and left. Dispelling the disillusionment charm when he got to a quiet place, about a floor down.

A little ruffled, the Unspeakable boy headed back to the Slytherin common room, with an intention to write to Croaker for the second time today.

When he got back, and got to writing, his sentence was short and simple.

'Cerberus, guarding third floor corridor. HW'

And the reply, when it came, was just as short and succinct.

'Keep us posted. SC'

-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-

Footnotes:

Immaterial's: A branch of the Department of Mysteries. Based on subtle espionage and intelligence gathering.

A/N: Thanks for reading. Also, rest assured that some details regarding how Harry got where he is, are coming in probably the next chapter (the halloween chapter). I just felt it was the most appropriate time canon-wise, to give some exposition on that, as well as some for Eve Potter. Thanks again :)


	6. It had to be Halloween : part one

Puer autem ineffabilem (The Unspeakable boy)

Disclaimer: i own nothing to do with the Harry Potter series.

-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-

Time had passed since Hadrian started at Hogwarts. But his love of the place had not diminished in the slightest, even if the lessons were a little on the slow side for him. He had his own books to occupy himself with until the curriculum got more interesting.

He was however, still waiting on a package to be delivered from the Department. And until it arrived, his operation of monitoring Eve Potter, had ground to a halt. He had talked to his sister every now and then, but evidently him being a Slytherin was going to be a bigger problem than he anticipated. No matter though, he could wait until the right moment to prove himself. Something he seemed to have to do quite a lot lately, whether it be to his Slytherin house mates (Greengrass still barely acknowledged his existence), or his teachers (who still insisted on calling him out on his boredom), with the exception of McGonagall and Snape.

But Hadrian was happy just hanging out with his own friends. So befriending Potter could go on the back burner until an opportunity presented itself.

As he did most days, Hadrian woke with a smile. But then he remembered what day it was, and his smile faltered slightly. It was 'that' day. The one where he never knew what to feel.

It was halloween, the date that marked the anniversary of his death. As well as the separation from his parents. He had long since come to terms with the Departments choice not to return him to his parents. The way they had explained it to him when he was little, made sense, it was logical. And Croakers words of advice always helped hom realise that this way was ror the best. But every now and then Hadrian found himself feeling left out.

He couldn't complain though, asides from anything, by the time he reached the age where the department could reasonably explain the situation to him, it was sort of too late. Age ten, legally dead for all those years, showing up on the doorstep of Potter manor, wouldn't exactly go down well. And if things hadn't happened like they did, he would never have been given the opportunities he got with the department.

With James, lily and Eve, he would've grown up with different opportunities, different chances and choices. Instead of learning how to obliviate someone and control what memories they forgot exactly, he would've learnt how to share his toys with his sister. Instead of being taught how to duel, he would've been made to learn proper table manners, and how to behave in wizarding society. Rather than visiting the Salar De Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia on a magical pilgrimage, he would've gone on holiday with his family. Instead of learning all those advanced spells, he would have had childhood friends... In the end, he supposed it was a double edged sword, and he shouldn't dwell on what could be. Instead he had to dwell on what was, and is... He still remembered the day Croaker explained it all to him in detail. After all, it hadn't been that long ago. Just before he received his Hogwarts letter it was.

The Department of Mysteries, a year or so previously.

Harry was sat quietly in his personal room. He was one of the only department members with quarters at the department, and probably the only one who frequently used them. He did after all, live here.

The door creaked open, and Croaker stepped in. Croaker was his handler, and the person he spent the most time with. If Harry knew what a father son relationship was like, he would've identified Croaker as the one most likely to fit the description of father. But he wasn't sure.

Croaker spoke calmly, but his tone had a certain severity to it. "Harry, come with me..."

They left Harry's small room, and walked through the department. They stopped in a room, which was more of a hall as Harry looked at the place before him. He had been here, once or twice, usually only passing through. But he knew enough to identify the high ceiling, maze-like space as. "This is the hall of prophecy... Do you know how many prophecies are recorded in here?..." Croaker asked steadily.

Harry did not know, so he simply watched Croaker attentively. "To many, if you ask me." They both spared a chuckle. "However, that's a lot of things that, if you believe in prophecies, are inevitable. Here at the Department, Harry. We don't believe in prophecies..." This confused the young boy, and it showed on his face. "Then why do we record them you ask? Its because it doesn't matter if we believe in them or not. A prophecy represents a highly probable assortment of events. However all a prophecy needs to stop being a representation of probability, and start being a truth, is people to act on it... Those who have prophecies about them are free to ignore the prophecy, before its events have been set in motion. And if the other participants ignored it also, then the prophecy would not come to pass... But Voldermort did not ignore one particular prophecy... Somehow, through our own blasted fault, he found out about one of the prophecies concerning him... and you... I say one, because there are a few. Yet they are all variations of the same prophecy that you have known ever since we told you it when you were a younger, more naive child... 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... The Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... Either must die at the hand of the other... Neither can live while the other survives... The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies...' There are variations though, that would have a big effect on things if they turned out to be true... The changes between each iteration of this prophecy are subtle, but the wording in prophecies is very important. Just ask Unspeakable Havisham next time you see her, she is a seer after all... She made one of the prophecies about you believe it or not."

Harry chimed in with a little joke, to keep the mood light. Though it was half hearted in terms of enthusiasm. As the dull electric blue light of the prophecies, illuminated the hall in an eerie way. Making everything seem cold, and dark, as if they were deep under the sea. "It seems everyone and their mum has a prophecy about me."

Croaker chuckled in his creaking, drawn out way. A laugh that seemed far to elderly for the middle aged man. "let us continue..."

They waled on, through the hall. Eventually they left, through a door at the end of one of the many rows of shining orbs.

They stepped through into a spacious room, which unlike the large hall of prophecies, was mostly empty. The roof was domed, and it had the look of an amphitheatre crossed with a planetarium. The circular room sank down into the middle, making the stone edges that bordered the sunken centre seem like audience seating. Which is indeed what they were.

In the middle of the room, was an archway, that stood tall with nothing supporting it, and seemed to not lead to anywhere. A freestanding gateway big enough for a man to step through. It had some kind of curtain hanging down on either side, obscuring the other side from view. The fabric was grey, tattered and appeared very old.

Harry knew this place as well, and the gateway in the middle of the amphitheatre. This was the room, of the Veil of Death.

Croaker sat down on one of the stone benches, about halfway up the area of seating. Harry joined him. "Now, Harry. We've talked to you about this before. But we didn't tell you everything. Just enough for you to realise you needed to be here, that it was the best option... So, now i'll explain in more detail. Your death. And how you are still alive... We have theories as to why Voldermorts killing curse backfired in the first place. The most likely is your mothers inadvertent use of a type of ancient magic. To the layman, it would be referred to as, the magic of love. As cliched as that sounds... But there were other factors at play that night, besides this mysterious form of very old magic... Do you want to know how the events of that Halloween night played out, the first time around?"

This little statement caught Harry off guard. "... The first, time..." He managed to say.

"Yes. It happened twice, technically. All thanks to one particular man. James Potter."

Harry couldn't help but notice the spite held in Croakers voice when he referred to James. Noting Harrys confused face, Croaker explained. "Just as the human mind cannot comprehend time, so it cannot comprehend the damage that will ensue if we presume to tamper with its laws."

The-boy-who-died recognised this, and interjected. "Thats from your thesis on time."

Smiling a little, Croaker continued. "Well done, it's nice to know someone appreciates my work. Anyway, James Potter did not comprehend this, and he presumed to tamper with time's laws. With the help of Albue Dumbledore and several aurors, he stole a time turner and went back to change the event... See, the first time, your sister died, and you survived... But Dumbledore had heard, and apparently told your parents about the prophecy. The one he had heard. Which was the only one that makes reference to the one to vanquish Voldermort, as a she... However, Dumbledore, for all his talent as a wizard, has no idea, nor the capacity of mind to understand what we do here. He has even less of an idea about the nature of prophecies. But rather than ask us, leave it to us, the department whose very purpose is to sort this stuff out. He instead decided to take matters into his own hands."

Hwrry thought he was following along, so he asked. "So Dumbledore stole a time turner from here?"

Croaker answered bluntly. "No. He stole it from a Professor at Hogwarts to whom we had issued a time-turner. Minerva McGonagall."

"So they went back in time to save my sister and, what, ended up killing me?" Harry questioned.

Croaker did not reply immediately, and just looked wt Harry grimly.

Harry tried to reason with the thoughts going through his head. "No... They... Ok..."

Croaker slowly continued explaining. "It was an accident, Harry. But when presented with a chance to save who they believed the child of prophecy, or who they saw as just a child... They may not have liked choosing, but there was only ever one they were going to pick. They chose her. They're not to be blamed of course. They couldn't known their prophecy was incorrect."

Harry contemplated this for a while, silently angry, but thinking logically before he asked. "...Incorrect? How so, I thought you said there are loads of prophecies about me, or, the prophecy child, or whatever?"

"The prophecy we believe to be the correct one, states 'Born to those who thrice defied him'. It is our assumption that, whatever these defiances were, didn't officially number as three, until James Potter travelled back in time to change events. Which resulted in the prophecy activating, ceasing to be a probable chain of events and becoming almost inevitable. At the same time as you being hit by the killing curse when Voldermort hurried to kill you and your sister, before Dumbledore broke down the door. We don't have a clear idea of what happened at Godrics hollow on that night. But we assume that Dumbledore and James' time travel landed them there just in time to make Voldermort rush." Croakers expression was practically unreadable, and showed only concern.

Slowly, Harry asked. "So Voldermort was taking his time the first time he tried to kill me and Eve?"

Croaker nodded slowly. "Yes, because Lily and James had been lured away by Pettigrew, the one who betrayed them, leaving your house defended by only a few choice aurors, who were unfortunately, no match for Voldermort."

"You're right... We cannot comprehend what'll happen if we tamper with time... Well, I can't at least, maybe thats just me though..." Harry said, mirthlessly.

As the two stared down at the Veil of death, and chuckled humourlessly. "So how exactly did I end up here?"

Croaker nodded, and his explanation took a less solemn tone. "We have a clearer idea on this than most events that happened that night actually. The effects of love magic, time travel, a prophecy, and some as of yet unknown dark magic Voldermort was using, all converged on one place at the same time. That place was you, when the killing curse hit you, it didn't just kill you, it destroyed or consumed your body... Then a few hours after Voldermort had killed you, and had been 'vanquished' supposedly by your sister. A little, sleeping baby boy simply, rolled out of the Veil, here at the department... Given the wards here, it wasn't long before someone showed up... That someone was me."

Croaker sounded a little sentimental when he mentioned it was he who had found Harry. A little proud. But then he continued ordinarily. "A lot of discussion happened that night. The department and its associate organisations convened to decide what to do with you. You had done the impossible. And we took this as a sign that you were the prophecy child. Born to those who thrice defied him, after James' time travel that was true. With a power the dark lord knows not, love magic we assume. As the seventh month dies, also true. Marked as the dark lords equal, the second time around when he attacked you before your sister the marking counted... Then 'either must die at the hand of the other. Neither can live while the other survives'... I said wording is important in prophecy? Well the version Dumbledore heard, has one word difference there. 'Either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives'... Two slightly different statements. One word, and the placement of a full stop, changed the fate of so many... Small difference, big change..."

Harry added, a dry comment, devoid of humour. "I think I see... Fate is a stickler for grammar"

Once more, the two chuckled lightly, yet there was very little reason to it, neither felt particularly humorous. Croaker carried on talking. "Anyway, soon after, we began some tests on you. Because it was the Veil of death, and you came out of it, an action never even considered as a possibility... The Veil is a gateway to death, as far as we can tell. But, we do not exactly know what death is, so what is the Veil a gateway to?... Is death a yin to the yang of life, or is it a path, maybe just another great adventure... Could it be a man? woman? child?... We have vague ideas, but what we know for certain is that death, is complicated. It has strange rules... Or maybe it has no rules at all and its all a fluke!" Croaker laughed then, briefly but somewhat manically. He calmed down, a little and dejectedly he continued. "Its a mystery my boy. A mystery... There are so many mysteries here, Harry. I suppose its only right, we are the 'department of mysteries' after all... Its our job to solve them, or at least try and understand them... Which is why there are many theories as to why you did not die that night, or why you didn't die permanently... Theories, but very few facts... Sorry about that..."

"Croaker, why explain to me me now? And not earlier?" Harry questioned, speaking quietly, though his voice still carried around the cold empty room.

The Unspeakable sighed. "You were younger then, is the answer to that. You're still young, but you're also very clever. We explained it to you now, because you can understand it fully now. We only told you the prophecy before, and what Voldermort did to you, so you could begin to understand why we needed you with us. So you wouldn't hate being here, or want to leave. We are explaining it now, because you have a right to know, a right to understand... Even though we barely understand ourselves... With us Harry, you have a better chance at fulfilling the prophecy, saving the world, than you'd ever have with the Potters..."

They both exhibited sullen expressions, but Harry consoled. "I know... And, no.. You have more of a grasp on things than you think..."

"Thank you, Harry." Croaker replied with a small smile tugging at his face.

"Thats alright, Dad." Harry said, on impulse referring to the man by the title the young boy thought he should have.

Croakers smile grew, and with it so did Harry's. "Come on, son. We've got a surprise for you."

"Surprise?" The boy asked curiously.

Croaker smirked and said. "A letter arrived today, for a, Hadrian Wordsworth."

Harry's face grew into a look of shocked and overjoyed incredulity. "It worked?! How?"

Croaker laughed, croakily yet merrily. "Please, Harry, we're the Department of Mysteries. Can't go telling you everything now can we."

And with that they left the amphitheatre, and walked out happily.

Back in the present. Hogwarts.

So Hadrian settled in for a day of feeling introspective. He got up, but didn't wait for his friends today, instead he readied himself and just headed for the great hall to get breakfast alone. Maybe spend a quiet moment by himself.

He was one of the only people in the hall this early. Along with him there were one or two Ravenclaws, a Hufflepuff, and one Slytherin. That Slytherin happened to be a first year girl, and out of all of them, it was Daphne Greengrass.

Hadrian took a seat across from her, a few spaces down. Politely yet coldly he said "Good morning."

She looked up from her porridge. Her dark eyes peering out from behind her long, overhanging locks of darker hair. "Good morning." She replied, with equal amounts of polite disdain.

Hadrian dished himself up some porridge as well, adding a few raisins on top because that was the best way to eat porridge. After a long tense silence, something in the rafters disturbed it.

Up from the high ceiling of the hall, a bird came flying down. An early bird, as the mail and newspapers were usually delivered later in the morning. But this bird seemed to be different. For it was not an owl like most, but rather a large vulture like creature. Somewhat resembling a Phoenix, except its tear shaped feathers were inky green. It looked haggard and thin, but glided down to the Slytherin table with an immense amount of silent grace. It was wet all over with rain, but it landed without fuss on the seat next to Hadrian. The few eyes in the hall were fixed on Hadrian and the bird.

As Hadrian untied the package from its leg, he said to it respectfully. "Thank you, Cadmus."

The bird gave a soft sound, a crooning whimper, that echoed throughout the hall. It was a birds call, but yet it was so different from any other avian sound. The reactions, of the Hufflepuffs and Daphne to this sound, were to clamp their hands over their ears, with looks of terror on their faces. Whilst the observing Ravenclaws shrugged and returned to their conversation.

Hadrian fed the bird some bacon and a bit of bread. Before patting its dark feathers, and placing the package it had delivered down beside him.

The vulture like creature took off again, its great green wings spreading as it carefully took off into the air again, and flew up and out of the hall through the opening from whence it came.

Hadrian returned to his porridge, but Daphne continued to stare at him. Her jaw slack and her eyes wide with fear, wonder and rage. Finally she demanded. "What!?"

Hadrian looked up blandly, and answered cooly. "That was my family bird. Yes, he is an Augurey. And no they can't kill with their birdsong."

This didn't lessen Daphne's confused outrage. "But... How... Well, it was..."

"But what. The bird has been with my family for years. How. Its a bird, it can fly and deliver mail as good as any owl. Though they can only fly in the rain, which is a bit annoying. Though Ignotius makes up for it by being a magnificent bird. Wouldn't you agree?" Hadrian's speech was very cold, yet he tried his best to remain polite to the girl who had had it out for him since the first day of term. Since then though, he and Greengrass had maintained a steady distance, but there was still a remaining dislike.

"...i suppose..." Was all she said in reply. Then the silence between them seemed to stretch on for a while. So Hadrian unwrapped a side of the package he had been delivered.

Peering through the gap in the brown package paper, he saw It was a large book, more of a tome. This volume was strangely, latched shut with a lock that had no keyhole. 'This is it' he thought gleefully. Smiling, knowing that his monitoring of Potter could finally commence in a more fruitful fashion.

"What is it?" Daphne's genuinely intrigued voice cut him away from his wonderings. Evidently his broad grin had drawn her attention.

"Oh, just a book." He replied blankly.

"... What book?" She asked, awkwardly trying to initiate conversation.

"... Just a book." Hadrian answered, his tone still keeping level and blank.

Daphne sighed. "Who by? What's it called?" She inquired, a single tone of levity playing across her voice.

Hadrian opened it further, more to confirm what the 'book' was, than to show her. But he removed more of the packaging and held it up. "The tales of Beedle the bard." He informed her.

"Cool... It looks old... And, why is it padlocked?" She sounded genuinely interested. Perhaps this was her attempt to mend bridges?

"Yeah, well, it is old... You read it?" Hadrian returned, dropping some of the coldness in his tone.

"No, I always thought they seemed silly." She replied, moving some of her long hair out of her face.

"Well, my dad used to read them to me when I was little." Which was actually true, Croaker had read him the fables many times when he was small. "I guess he thought I should have it for some reason, like an heirloom or something..."

Daphne 'hmm'd' contentedly. "But why is it padlocked though? That's unusual..."

"Don't know. Maybe the pages are delicate. So it's locked to keep people from damaging it." He answered, with what he thought was a reasonable explanation. He could hardly say 'oh, it's locked because there's a piece of a Dementors cloak in here, y'know, normal reasons'

"But it doesn't have a keyhole? Is it opened with magic?" She seemed a little excited at the idea. So Hadrian decided to indulge her curiosity so she'd stop asking about it.

He put his face close to the lock, and whispered so she would not hewr. "Saul"

The silver padlock clicked open, and fell off the latch into his lap. Daphne made an impressed sounding 'oh'. And Hadrian replaced the lock.

"I don't suppose, I could read it sometime?" She asked, in a timidly unemotional way.

"... Sure, sometime." The Unspeakable boy replied, with a similar tone.

It was then that the rest of the Slytherin first years started to filter in, and his and Daphne's conversation was put to an end. Soon there was laughing and ruckus as the hall filled up with the rest of the students from all houses and years.

The hall was decorated appropriately for halloween, something which Hadrian paid very little, if not zero attention to. Halloween wasn't his favourite of the holidays, with good reason. It stirred up a lot of confused and saddening notions for him, which he didn't like dealing with. And the fact that the anniversary of his death (which was a disturbing thing to have anyway, if you're not a ghost), was on Halloween of all days, was very disheartening. Luckily he had his friends to take his mind off of it.

Then something else took his attention away from his minor depression.

The great oaken doors to the hall burst open, silencing all and drawing everyones attention. Students and staff alike. To the turban wearing, highly distressed Professor Quirinus Quirrell, who was now running into the hall.

"Troll, in the dungeon!... Thought you ought to know..." Then the man collapsed.

-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-

A/N: Okay, I struggled with explaining things in this chapter. Regarding Harry, how he died and didn't die and all that. I think I got the idea across, but some of it will most likely remain ambiguous on purpose. Still, I hope the general idea was conveyed. If I left anything out or missed something that you'd like to know, leave a review and i'll see if I can address it in the next chapter or something. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it.


	7. It had to be Halloween : Part two

Puer autem ineffabilem (The Unspeakable boy)

Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with the Harry Potter series.

-/-\-/-\-/-\-

Malfoy squeaked out an alarmed sounding. "Troll!?"

At the same time Theo shouted disbelievingly. "Troll?!"

While Blaise barely whispered a terrified. "Troll."

Daphne was just as quiet, but nowhere near as terrified as Blaise, when she muttered an astounded. "Troll?"

Hadrian's eyes went wide when he uttered the word, as if confirming that was what Quirrell had said. "Troll..."

Different reactions sounded all throughout the hall, as every student dealt with the news. Causing the great hall to surmount to nothing short of an uproar. The overhanging word though, seemed to be 'Troll.'

"Silence!"

Then it all went quiet, as Dumbledore had bellowed the word across the hall. Once all eyes had focused on him, the long bearded old man began to speak. In a commanding tone, which held a great deal of severity he said. "All students will follow the prefects to their common rooms, and await further instruction there. No one is to leave the common rooms until the situation has been dealt with. The Slytherin house will go to the library instead of the dungeons. Teachers will follow me, that is all."

Then the prefects went about carrying out Dumbledores orders, and they herded their respective houses out of the hall.

The library was in the same direction as the Gryffindor tower, so the snakes and lions were moving along together. So Hadrian noticed when the-girl-who-lived and Ron Weasley, started to lag behind. Then when they split off from the group entirely, and headed straight down an adjoining corridor at break neck speed, Hadrian knew that something was amiss with those two.

Leaning over to Malfoy, he whispered to his blond friend. "If they do role call, impersonate me would you."

"What?" Was Malfoy's hushed and confused reply.

To which Hadrian simply added. "Cover for me." And he too slipped away from the flock of students, and into an adjoining corridor.

A quick sprint later, and he caught sight of a tuft of red hair and robes whipping round a corner. Chasing after it, Hadrian rounded the same corner and laid eyes on his targets. Potter and Weasley were standing outside the second floor girls toilets, and arguing.

"But it's a troll, a big, stinking, big, troll! What are we going to even do." Was what Weasley was frantically saying.

Eve didn't seem to be any more confident. "I know, but... Hermione's in there, maybe we could just shout out to her..."

'Oh for crying out loud' Hadrian thought, as he pushed past them saying. "Or, we could actually do something." A part of him wished he could've seen their faces, but there were more important things at hand.

When he entered the toilets, he was presented with the sight of a huge, grey skinned goliath of a humanoid, wearing a tattered brown loincloth, and carrying a huge wooden club. A club, that it was raising to swing at the row of cubicles, from which Hadrian could hear a girls voice screaming. "Help!"

Without thinking, he drew his wand in a flash and cast. "Expelliarmus"

The troll swung at the cubicles. But its club did not make contact with them. Instead its hand waved over them. The club had been wrenched from its grip, and had flown across the room. Whereupon it had crashed into and embedded itself in a wall.

The troll made some neanderthal sound of confusion, and Hadrian realised that the stupid creature hadn't noticed him.

Not bothering to roll his eyes, Hadrian just lifted his fingers up to his mouth, and whistled. Years of being a quidditch fan paid off, and his loud, high pitched whistle caught the trolls attention.

'Okay, didn't think that through too well' Hadrian thought, as the monster roared, and charged him.

"Conjunctivitis" He cast, and ran at the oncoming troll. The goliath grabbed at its eyes, while it was still running and Hadrian slipped between its tree trunk sized legs. He weaved through the limbs, and wound up behind the now visually impaired troll.

The troll stopped to rub at its eyes, groaning and wailing as it did so. Then Hadrian saw that Eve and Weasley had come into the room. Both sported expressions so shocked and scared it was unbelievable.

"Hey! Pea brain!" Potter half squeaked half yelled at the humongous creature.

Now the troll wasn't completely blinded, and Eve had just given away her location. The troll lunged out with its long flailing arms, and grabbed at the two new arrivals.

It got Eve's leg, and Weasley leapt away like a rabbit running from a fox. Eve was now screaming as the troll hoisted her into the air, where she dangled upside down.

The troll started swiping at Eve with its other arm, but due to her squirming and the trolls impaired eyesight, it was having little luck.

"Weasley! Go get the teachers, now!" Hadrian yelled at the quivering red head.

Ron didn't need to be told twice, and he legged it out of the room. Whereupon Hadrian directed his wand at the troll once more, and sighed, resigning to extreme measures. Knowing normal spells wouldn't work on the trolls thick skin, he performed some elaborate wand movement, and cast. "Sanguinem glacium"

Strangely, Eve had jammed her wand up the Goliath's nose. which seemed to colour what Hadrian's spell did.

The troll half dropped, half threw Eve to the ground, where she tumbled to collide with the wall. There she lay motionless, while Hadrian kept his wand trained on the troll, to maintain his spell. With a grim, determined look on his face, he kept incanting the spell under his breath.

The troll sneezed out the wand, and then started slowing to an incredibly sluggish pace. Within seconds it was barely standing there, merely shivering and whimpering.

Hadrian adjusted his wand movement for a moment, and cast. "Descendo" causing the creature to sink heavily to its knees. Then Hadrian resumed the other spell. "Sanguinem glacium."

The troll was shaking now, and after letting out a particularly pained wail, it fell flat onto its face. Still conscious, but unwilling or unable to move. Hadrian stopped casting, and walked over to stand by the trolls skull.

It looked up at him with sagging, glassy eyes. The leaden orbs strained with pain and fatigue. Hadrian directed his wand at the trolls pupil, and cast. "Stupefy."

The troll fell still, looking no different than it had when standing. With no physically noticeable injuries...

"What did you do..." Came a trembling voice from behind him. The-boy-who-died turned, to see Hermione Granger looking at him with fear and concern in her eyes.

"Hermione I-" He began imploringly.

"That, that looked like the... That was, dark magic." She was starting to back away.

"Hermione, listen..." He tried.

"You, you're a Slytherin, R-Ron always says that..." And then she turned and bolted for the door.

"Stupefy." Hadrian cast the spell before thinking, and it hit the poor girl right in the small or her back as she was nearing the door.

Hadrian cursed himself under his breath, as the girl fell to the floor unconscious. He hadn't wanted to do that...

He approached Hermione's limp form, and knelt down beside her. He placed his wand to her forehead, trying not to move her. He muttered a brief. "Sorry." Before he closed his eyes and focused.

"Obliviate." And like that her recent memories were crushed, shifted and erased in a very specific manner. Hadrian was very good with memory charms. Ever since he had to first cast one for the department. He had a knack for cultivating the ones that were forgotten, and Hermione's recent memory of what she had witnessed, was expertly removed.

He then made his way over to Eve. Checking her vitals, he was relieved but not surprised to find her alive. He knew she hadn't taken that much of a besting. After he had done so, he cast "obliviate" on her too. After all, he couldn't risk her even remembering hearing the incantation he'd used. Sanguinem Glacium was classified, and the Department had been working on the so nicknamed 'ice blood' curse for a while, and Hadrian was privy to some of the latest experiments they cooked up.

Then he heard the sound of approaching footsteps from the corridor outside. A fresh wave of panic hit him, as he was coming down from the rush of adrenaline. He realised what he'd just done, or rather what a first year had just done. Taken down a troll without breaking a sweat, and with barely a scratch on him.

With nowhere to run, and not wanting to face the music, he took the third option. So, opting out seemed like a good idea, as opposed to having to think up answers to all the questions that would inevitably come. So he turned his wand on himself, and cast. "Stupefy." Then it all went blissfully calm, and immaculately black.

-/-\- An indeterminate amount of time later, Hogwarts Hospital wing. -/-\-

It was dark outside when Hadrian awoke. And looking around, he saw a number of hospital beds lining the walls. Tall windows were spaced along the walls, and a set of double doors was at one end of the room, while there was a small room at the other. All lights were off.

Moonlight was sifting through the windows, and the soft glimmer of light illuminated some of the room. As he looked around, Hadrians eyes rested on two forms in two other beds. He reasoned that they must be Eve and Hermione.

Which logically meant that it couldn't be too long after the troll incident, if none of them had been brought around, let alone dismissed yet, Hadrian guessed it was midnight (give or take a couple of minutes) on Halloween night.

Catching sight of a pair of glasses next to one of the other patients beds, Hadrian identified that the person occupying said bed must be Eve. And the bandage around her head confirmed that, she was the only one of them who had been actually concussed. As opposed to Hermione, whom he had stunned.

He didn't regret it though. She had freaked out, which was understandable, as the spell he used did looked unavoidably dark. It was dark, true, but just, not as dark as most.

Sanguinem Glacium, The ice blood, curse made one feel an immense and thorough cold. It would've been painful, but trolls are resistant to most spell damage, so he'd had to dig deep for the unique spells that would actually neutralise it. The ice blood curse had worked to wear it down, then a stunner to an exposed weak point had done the rest.

Besides, he was obliged to wipe her memory, as a member of the department of mysteries it was something he'd had to do from time to time. He had no qualms, because it had been necessary to keep his cover.

Now though, he'd have to think up a good explanation as to what had happened. As he figured that 'I don't remember' wouldn't quite cut it... Or maybe playing dumb would work in his favour. Perhaps claiming he'd cast some random spell and got lucky, would satisfy the interrogators when they arrived...

For now he'd sleep on it. After all, unconsciousness did not equate to sleep in his book. Hopefully, how little the teachers would know, could work in his favour. The fact the medi-witch hadn't brought them back to consciousness yet, showed that the staff didn't exactly know the conditions by which they had been knocked out, which was a good sign.

So Hadrian drifted off to sleep.

-/-\- Morning -/-\-

The Unspeakable boy was woken by a commotion.

"Let me see my daughter! James, tell her!" The voice was shrill and distressed, and came from behind the double doors that provided entrance into the hospital wing.

Now, Hadrian heard the voice and jumped to a conclusion. Lying still, he made a three part connection. 'My daughter', either meant the speaker was the mother of Hermione or Eve. Then assuming that Hermione's father wasn't also called James, and assuming that James was the father of the aforementioned daughter, that meant the voice outside the hospital wing belonged to...

Hadrian hadn't moved anything but his eyes, and now he closed them again. Preferring to feign unconsciousness and hope that no one noticed. He didn't need or want to deal with this. Ever.

He heard the doors bursting open, and then the hurried flurry of robes bustling. The sounds of movement were of four people, if Hadrian had to guess. All of them moving with different paces. Two figures taking the hurried lead, and two following behind.

The mothers voice spoke in that worried mothering tone. Sounding from across the room, by where Hadrian knew Eve's bed was. "Eve sweetie, are you alright!? Are you hurt at all?"

"No mum, i'm fine now." Came Eve's exasperated, but nonetheless thankful voice.

"She's fine Lils. She's my little Gryffindor princess, course she's fine." Said a new voice, male, slightly tinged with worry. But far more relieved than frantic.

Eve's parents were here, and Hadrian didn't want to think what that meant for him. He hadn't expected this. He knew sooner or later he would cross paths with his biological parents, but never did he think it'd be this soon.

But it'd be okay, he just had to lie there, and act unconscious... Easy.

"Dad, don't call me that, 's embarrassing." Was Eve's, highly embarrassed sounding voice.

"Oh right, don't want to embarrass you in front of your friends... Although that young man seems a little too out of it to care." Replied James, teasingly. Hadrian could practically hear the mans smile.

It didn't seem to help sedate Lily's worried mood. "James, don't say that, the boys unconscious."

"Right, right, well we're just glad you and your friends are okay Eve, right?." James spoke again, sounding a little concerned.

"I'm fine, dad. I think Hermione is too, right Hermione?" Eve asked.

Then Hermione's nervous voice came from her bed, which was adjacent to Hadrian's. "Yes, i'm alright, thank you."

"Mum, dad, this is my friend Hermione. And he's Hadrian." Eve said slowly, in that tone one uses, when explaining something to people who were in a heightened emotional state.

"It's nice to meet you Hermione." Said Lily's friendly, much more at ease tone. Evidently she was satisfied that her daughter was uninjured.

"Is he asleep, or.." James inquired.

"He's asleep currently, and he needs rest." Said a new voice, unfamiliar and formal. The Hogwarts nurse most likely. "Albus, i'll be in my office." So it was the nurse.

"Very well, Poppy." Said the collected, merry tone of the headmaster. Surprisingly from right beside him.

Hadrian was lucky he didn't start in surprise at the proximity of the voice. From the sound if it, the headmaster was seated right next to his bed.

"Is he okay?" Said Hermione, in a small, worried voice.

"Yes, I think so." Said the headmaster. "I daresay we should wake him up. We still need his account of things after all."

"Well, he did kind of, help save Hermione so..." Said Eve in a reasoning tone.

'What does she mean kind of?' Hadrian thought irritably. When he felt a hand rest on his shoulder and he heard Dumbledore's wizened old voice say softly. "Mr Wordsworth? Hadrian?"

'No dodging this' Hadrian resigned to himself, as he slowly and reluctantly, opened his emerald eyes.

The bright sun lit room became visible to him. And the first thing he saw, were the three figures across the room. Then the elderly, kind face of the headmaster in his peripheral vision beside him.

Eve was sat up in her bed on the opposite wall. She was smiling reassuringly at him, and had removed her head bandage that she was sporting the previous night. Eve even gave a little wave.

Holding the girls hand, was a woman sat on a chair to the left side of Eve's bed. The woman had a kind face, with long, dark red hair that fell down past her shoulders. She had bright, inquisitive green eyes, that looked at him with a warm gaze.

On the other side of the bed, stood a man with messy brown hair. He was wearing the uniform, dark blue robes of the aurors, and had quite a cheeky, yet comfortingly friendly looking face.

Not wanting to linger to long looking at them, and chance them noticing his slightly scared expression, Hadrian looked to his left, at the smiling headmaster.

"Hello, Mr Wordsworth. How are you feeling?" The headmaster asked in a grandfatherly tone.

"Not too bad, all things considered..." Hadrian replied, feigning a groggy sounding, morning voice.

"Good, good. Do you recall what happened yesterday?" Dumbledore asked politely.

"Err, yeah. Most of it." The Unspeakable answered.

"Excellent... Ah, you'll be glad to know that Eve and Miss Granger are safe, thanks in part, to your efforts." Dumbledore reassured him.

"Well, I can see that." Hadrian answered jokingly, smiling reservedly as he did so. Giving a little nod to Eve and then to Hermione. Both of whom returned happy grins.

The headmaster chuckled lightly, and said. "Anyway, I was wondering if you could fill us in on what happened with the troll? After Eve and Miss Granger were incapacitated."

Hadrian noticed Lily cringe at the mention of the events that led to her daughter being injured, but he did his best to ignore it. "Err, sure. Well, after the troll had hit them, I kind of, just started throwing random spells at it."

"Your teachers tell me you have quite an aptitude for magic. Can you remember what spells you used, exactly?" Dumbledore asked, raising a questioning brow.

"A few stunners, I think... I don't recall exactly, 'cos I think, when the troll fell it caught me with its hand or something, and thats when I passed out..." Hadrian tried, tentatively feigning uncertainty.

"I see..." The headmaster said, looking Hadrian in the eye.

As soon as they locked eyes, Hadrian felt a startling presence he had not expected. His eyes widened involuntarily, as he slammed down his occlumency defences.

He remedied his expression immediately, but could tell Dumbledore had noticed, by the old mans equally surprised look.

The chilling sensation of legillimency diminished from his mind, leaving his mental defences alone. And a moment of silence passed between the two. To everyone else in the room it was just awkward. But to Dumbledore and Hadrian, it was a moment of renewed appraisal.

Hadrian hadn't had time to redirect Dumbledores assault, only to prevent him from unearthing anything valuable. Now the two stared at each other, with blank faces, but a look behind both pairs of eyes that belied a certain understanding.

"So... Thanks kid, you must be pretty good to take down a troll." Said James, with a mildly confused attempt to break the silence.

"Don't be so awkward, James. Thank you very much, we're grateful that you were there to make sure our Eve didn't get hurt." Lily corrected her husband, before thanking him generously.

Dumbledore had just tried to read his mind. His parents were in the room and they didn't know it. And he had recently defeated a troll. The-boy-who-died was feeling apprehensive to say the least. Swallowing nervously he said. "No problem ma'am..."

A while passed, with Lily Potter fussing over her daughter, while Eve looked increasingly embarrassed of her mothers fretting. Meanwhile James just rolled his eyes throughout.

Opposing this were Dumbledore, Hermione and Hadrian, who all sat in a reflective silence for their respective reasons.

For Hadrian it was a combination of not wanting to draw any more attention to himself, and not thinking about the situation too much.

But soon enough, the headmaster and the Potter adults, went to converse with Madam Pomfrey, leaving the three students alone.

It was Hermione who broke the silence. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Was Hadrian's reply. While Eve answered at the same time, saying. "It's okay."

Both girls looked at Hadrian confusedly. Then Hermione clarified. "For causing you guys to-"

Hadrian saw where her train of thought was headed, and cut her off. "Don't be stupid. You didn't know there was a troll. And you don't have to be sorry for going to the toilet. Besides, what kind of friends would you have if they didn't come to warn you."

"No, you don't understand. The reason I was in there, was because I was being stupid." Hermione admitted shyly.

"Okay, what? I'm missing something." Hadrian said.

"Of course! You didn't come with me and Ron." Eve realised. "Which reminds me? Why were you there at all?... Not that i'm complaining but..."

"I followed you and Ron when I saw you break away from the group. Being Gryffindors, I assumed you two were going to go do something reckless. So I went after you." He omitted the part where Ron and Eve had hesitated before going in, but that didn't mean anything in the overall. They were ordinary first years, who were up against a troll, it was understandable.

"Oh, well, Ron said some hurtful things about Hermione and-" Eve began, but Hadrian once again cut the sentence off, so as to not make the conversation too trying for Hermione.

"Ok, I get it. Either way it's nothing to be sorry about Hermione." He explained.

"Well, thanks, both of you." The bushy haired girl said affirmatively.

-/-\- Later that day. -/-\-

Luckily, there was no further questioning. Something he had been worried about, after the psychic clash with Dumbledore. But then, admitting it happened would be admitting that the old man had tried to illegally invade his thoughts. So he assumed they'd just rest at a stalemate. For now.

But now the headmaster had left, citing that he had paperwork to do. Not half likely, considering a troll had broken into the castle.

After Madam Pomfrey had checked the three patients over one more time, she dismissed them.

"So, you three will be heading back to Gryffindor tower then? I'm guessing your friends'll be relieved to see you." James said, as the three were getting up to go.

'Wow, that's one brave assumption.' Hadrian thought with a bitter sarcasm.

"Oh, well..." Eve started to say, nervously.

When Hadrian threw on his emerald green Slytherin robes, and faced James with a smile. "Not all of us, Mr Potter, sir."

"Oh... Oh!... I see, well." James voice was a delicate mish-mash of uncomfortable awkwardness. His disapproval and distrust evident first, followed up with a polite yet embarrassed twinge to his tone.

"Oh, well, that's nice." Lily added, in a pathetic attempt to sound bright and cheerful. Well, it was either pathetic or adorable, Hadrian couldn't decide.

While the two girls changed into their robes, Hadrian, James and Lily were left briefly alone.

"So, Hadrian... Where did you learn such advanced spells like stunners?" James said, which left Hadrian wondering if the man was even trying to be subtle. His suspicion was obvious, while still veiled.

"I don't think the young man wants to be asked any more questions, James." Lily threatened her husband, with a tone befitting that of a predator ready to strike.

"I'm just asking him a question, Lily." James replied, frostily. Still keeping a watch on Hadrian.

The Unspeakable boy couldn't help but think back to when he had first been placed in Slytherin. When Professor Snape had told them all, that the house of the snakes had a bad reputation. He had known the warning had been true, he just didn't realise how widespread that mistrust was.

Thankfully, Hermione and Eve rejoined them then, and the topic was dropped. As they were exiting the hospital wing, the teo Gryffindor girls thanked him again. Whereupon Hadrian just made some wishy-washy modest comment, and said he'd see them later, before heading off in the opposite direction towards the dungeons.

As he walked away though, he did hear James Potter rather indignantly say. "So Eve, you didn't put in any of your letters that you'd made friends with any Slytherin boys."

To which Hadrian could only smirk as he rounded the corner.

-/-\- Down in the Slytherin common room, later. -/-\-

Hadrian walked in, to find most of the first years sat around the middle of the room. Crowded on the armchairs and sofas, either reading or just idly chatting.

When Malfoy spotted him, the others turned their gaze as well and a unanimous cry of "Hadrian!" Went up.

The Unspeakable boy couldn't help the wide grin that grew upon his face, as they rushed over to welcome him back. The first to speak comprehensibly, was Theo, who said. "Haddy! Mate, what happened? Snape came by and said you fought a troll, and saved some Gryffindors and-"

Blaise interjected hurriedly. "T-those weren't his exact words, but still."

Then Daphne pushed through the crowd, and promptly slapped Hadrian across the face. There was a moment of estranged silence, then, sounding a little abashed she said. "That was because, if you'd have died, you would've disgraced the house, so there, we're even... Idiot..." Though her voice still retained her trademark, sharp coldness.

'Well...' Hadrian thought. 'its better than stinking halfblood.' Before he smiled, rubbed his face where she'd slapped him, and started to laugh. She hadn't hit him that hard after all. Then the rest of them started laughing too, and they all moved to sit down together.

Cosily squashed together, the whole cast of first year Slytherins listened in to Hadrian, as he began the 'official' story of what happened. With a few embellishments here and there, to make up for the lack of unknown dark curses he learnt from the department of mysteries... It was more of a party friendly version of the story.

He was sitting, crammed between Malfoy and Daphne. Daphne who seemed to be refreshingly, less aversed to him than she had been previously. Enough at least to sit next to him. Pansy Parkinson was sat on Malfoy's lap, and the others were either seated across from them, or on the floor.

And it was here, that Hadrian felt so wonderfully glad, that he was in Slytherin. Because in the face of adversity, you draw together into a group. A small family of sorts, and that is what the snakes had done.

-/-\-/-\-/-\-

A/N: I just can't stop writing this fic. I keep getting surprised by things that seem to crop up. For Instance, I hadn't planned on James and Lily showing up, but then I couldn't stop the idea from taking hold. I do have certain bits already written though, so that helps. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, thanks for reading. :)


	8. Quidditch quandaries

Puer autem ineffabilem (The Unspeakable boy)

Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with the Harry Potter series.

-/-\-/-\-/-\-

Harry walked into the boys dormitory, and going over to his bed he noticed one very disconcerting thing sitting on it. Resting on the green bedcovers, was the book he had received in the post on Halloween morning. The tales of Beedle the bard. The book which was delivered to him by the Department of mysteries. and which was smuggling a Dementors shroud. He must've forgotten the book or misplaced it, which was plausible given that he had been rendered unconscious recently. But that left the question, who had taken and returned it?

One thing particularly worried Hadrian about the book though. It had been locked when it was delivered, and now the silver padlock sat on top of the volume, unattached to its clasp, leaving the book openable by anyone.

Someone had opened it. Hoping against hope that it's illegally smuggled contents hadn't been taken, Hadrian flipped it open, and began leafing through it's pages.

The shroud was nowhere to be found. But pressed in-between the last two pages, was a small piece of parchment. It was a note written in thin, precise handwriting, and it read. 'Come to the common room at midnight tonight.'

Hadrian was panicking now, although he didn't show it. He was simply sat on his bed, the curtains pulled around the four poster, and he was not moving a muscle. His thoughts however were running at a mile a minute. Who had found it? Had they told anyone else? Was it too late to obliviate them? Did they know what it was they'd found? Had they even found it, could it have just dropped out of the book? Was the Dementors shroud even in there in the first place?

Then his mind slowed down, and he thought rationally. The only way to open that lock was with the pass-phrase, or very powerful magic. The first option seemed most likely, and that left him with the only logical conclusion. The only other person at Hogwarts who could have possibly known the password. If they had maybe overheard him open the book when it was delivered...

Midnight rolled around quickly, because time flies when you're worrying beyond belief. So, quietly Hadrian slipped out of the dormitory.

The common room was empty, and the fires had died down or been completely extinguished. A single lamp was still alight though, in one of the adjoining alcoves of the room. Lighting up the round table that took up most of the small side-space.

At the table was sat, exactly who he had expected to see. Daphne Greengrass. The girl's face was visible in the light, but her hair hung partially over it, causing lines of shadows to flicker across her thin features and casting the girl in an ominous light.

Hadrian walked over to her table slowly, and silently took a seat across from her. Daphne's expression was unreadable, and she sat with her hands folded in her lap, unmoving.

They remained in silence for a while, before Hadrian tentatively started. "So, you were the one who returned my book..." He said, not wanting to address the matter directly just yet.

"Yes..." Was her only, slightly faint hearted reply.

"... Did you, read it?" Hadrian tried, warily.

"I was going to..." She made like she was going to broach the subject that was clearly on both of their minds, but stopped short.

After a long silence, Hadrian just said it. "... You have it..."

"I do. But, why did you?" She was looking him directly in the eye now, whereas before she had been absently staring at her hands.

Her brilliant blue eyes locked with his vidid green ones, and Hadrian decided avoidance was the best kind of action right now. Best to at least try and play it by the book. "None of your business." He offered.

Her mouth thinned in suspicion or disapproval, and she deadpanned. "Maybe... I just want to know if I should be worried." She had started that sentence out confidently, but that self assuredness fractionally diminished, and Hadrian realised something. She was afraid of him. Her eyes gave it away. The way she locked gazes with him, but every now and then the corner of her eye would tremble, or her stare would quiver. Because no matter how much you try, no one can hide everything, all the time. Something that seemed both a blessing and a curse to Hadrian at this moment.

"No one needs to worry... I have that with a good reason..." He tried to reassure her.

"... I find that hard to believe." Was her stony reply.

"Its true..." Was his only answer to that.

"... Okay." She commented, still not moving.

Maybe it was best to stop skirting around the problems. "Did you? Think I was going to use it as some sort of weapon?... On you?" He asked, concerned.

She broke their eye contact and looked away. "Maybe..."

He leant forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. She shifted away from the contact, but it had the desired effect. Daphne was now looking him in the eye again. Honestly, Hadrian said. "I wasn't. I would never do that, to anyone."

She shuffled a little, and then answered. A hint of acceptance in her voice. "Okay... Where did you get it?"

"Thats none of yo-" Hadrian started.

"Tell me." Daphne cut in harshly, most of her fear and veiled sensibility gone.

Ambiguity seemed like a solid option. And he couldn't obliviate her now, not this long after she had found the shroud. But rather than foist suspicion onto his fake family, he just said. "I have connections. Thats all you need to know..." Noticing her wariness had not dissipated, he added. "It's for an enchantment i'm working on. Nothing bad." Which was the truth, just not all of it.

"Connections... Those are some, well connected, connections." After that she seemed slightly disappointed with her lack of eloquence. But appeared overall, less worried as they continued to talk. "Thats... Very powerful magic though..." She added.

"I suppose..." Hadrian shrugged somewhat affirmatively.

"Impressive..." Daphne complimented off handedly.

"Thank you." Hadrian answered, evenly.

Daphne then reached down to her right, and lifted a small bundle off of the seat next to her. She placed the parcel of parchment on the table and slid it across to him. Evidently she had not wanted to touch the actual object. "Did you, touch the object?" Hadrian asked, worried at what the answer might be.

"Yes." Daphne answered frostily.

"I'm sorry." Was all Hadrian could think to say. Then, he picked up the small parcel and stood to go.

As he turned to leave, Daphne somewhat blurted out. "You seem a lot older than you are... Sometimes. And you're quite clever too. You're a credit to Slytherin." It was an odd comment, and as he turned to regard her, she looked away to avoid his gaze.

"... Thanks." He tried, awkwardly.

At this, they both shared a small silence and then she said something he had not expected. "I'm sorry, if I haven't been that nice to you all the time." She said, smiling but still not meeting his eyes.

"... Apology accepted. But you don't have to be nice to me 'all' the time. I can be a bit of an idiot on occasion." Hadrian said sincerely, but following up his self deprecating gibe with a half smirk.

"Well this is the only one you'll be getting, so consider yourself lucky... I thought about how i'd behaved towards you, after I heard you'd been injured by the troll. And I realised that if you'd died, then, well, I wouldn't have had a chance to apologise for my behaviour towards you. i didn't think you were worthy of being here, what with your being a... Well, that's something a Slytherin should never do to another snake." She explained, shyly.

Hadrian felt his face grow warm with a mixture of self-pride and embarrassment. Not knowing what to say, he smiled warmly at her, and bowed his hesd a little in aporeciation

She gave a small smile, then Hadrian bid her goodnight. "Goodnight, Daphne."

"Good night, Hadrian." He heard her say as he walked away, back into the boys dormitory.

-/-\- The next day -/-\-

It was the day of the first Quidditch match of the school season, and as per tradition, the teams facing off against each other were the long term rivals, Slytherin and Gryffindor.

Hadrian had walked down to the pitch with the entourage of Slytherin first years. They were laughing and joking, wearing their house colours to the nines in anticipation for the game.

Against better judgement, Hadrian wore a rather smug grin on his face. As the expression was all but uniform with the entire house, for the snakes had held the Hogwarts quidditch cup for a long while now, and apparently their team wasn't getting any worse. Nor did they have any intention of relinquishing their grip on the victory.

Hadrian was still rather excited to see Eve play though, she was his sister and his friend after all. But his house pride mostly overrode his duty as a brother and a friend. Nevertheless he kept his support for the Gryffindor seeker hidden.

The match got under way, and was going well for the snakes. The play was interesting in general, however, there were interesting developments at one point, when all of a sudden Eve started lurching and jumping about on her broom. Hadrian had occasionally turned his binoculars onto her to see how she was faring, but the lioness didn't seem to have laid eyes on the snitch when he was looking. In fact, up until now she had just been sitting around doing nothing really. Which was certainly not what Hadrian would've done, but he wasn't going to critique her seeking skills now, when her broom was badly malfunctioning.

After a few moments of this, Hadrian was a little alarmed for her safety. And none of the teachers, or the referee, seemed to be doing anything.

Turning his binoculars to the teachers stands, Hadrian saw something exactly to the contrary of Eve's safety. Professor Quirrell was at the back of the stands, sitting in the shadows. And the turban wearing defence teacher had his wand subtly drawn at his side, and was pointing it up at Eve whilst mouthing the words to a spell. His secretiveness was such to clue Hadrian in on something.

It didn't take long for the young Unspeakable to put two and two together. So, quickly and quietly he slipped away from his friends in the Slytherin stands, and ran through the stadiums underbelly, to get to the teachers area. Right now, it was his job to stop Quirrell.

He arrived at the staff tower, and sprinted up the rickety wooden stairs. When he got near the top, Hadrian stopped to think for a moment. He couldn't just rush in there and throw a hex at Quirrell, that'd incur too many questions. So, Hadrian surmised that sabotage seemed like a better option. Pulling aside one of the fabric coverings, Hadrian crept underneath the stalls, into the inards of the stadium scaffolding.

When under the seats, he made his way to below where Quirrell was sitting. He was crouched there, drawing his wand, when he noticed something unexpected.

Hermione Granger was on the opposite side of the scaffold from him, seemingly staring at him with the same expression of weird wonder. A moment of confusion passed between them, across the small cramped space. Then they shuffled towards each other, and began a hurried, whispered conversation. Both in accusatory tones, yet both knowing neither should be there.

The bushy haired Gryffindor girl started first. "What are you doing here?"

To which the messy haired Slytherin boy shot back. "What am I doing here? What are you doing here?"

"I asked first." Hermione was quick to retort.

An indignant silence hung in the air for a moment, before Hadrian caved. "... Fine. Quirrell is hexing Eve, which is why her broom's gone haywire..."

Hermione's expression went from suspicious and confused, to just plain confused. "Quirrell? No, Snape is hexing Eve's broom."

Hadrian hadn't seen Snape doing anything, but then again he hadn't really looked. "Wait... So, they're both hexing her?"

"If what you say is true, then one of them must be trying to counter the hex." Hermione was quick to reason, though she kept eyeing him with a look of surreptitious distrust.

"How do we know which one is hexing her and which one is countering it?" Hadrian proffered the new conundrum.

"Because Snape hates Eve, come on it's obviously Snape." Hermione replied witheringly.

"No, Snape is a head of house, he wouldn't jepordiae that for a game, which we are winning. So, it's clearly Quirrell." Hadrian reasoned, raising his eyebrows at her and mimicking her patronising gaze.

"How can you be sure?" She spluttered.

"How can you?" Hadrian expressed.

"Fair point... So what do we do?" She consented.

They crouched their in though for a second, before Hadrian just said. "... Jinx 'em both?"

He could see the gears turning in the head of the, occasionally nicknamed 'Gryffindor goody goody'. Before she resigned by saying. "Agreed."

Hadrian took a moment to whisper to her. "I'll find you after the match, we need to discuss this." Before he hurried back over to beneath Quirrell's seat, and cast a brief, minor "incendio" on the hem of his robes.

A cry went up from the teachers stands, as both he and Hermione exited on opposite ends. Leaving the teachers to deal with the predicament.

Poking his head out of the stadium tower to check that the plan had worked, Hadrian let out a relieved sigh when he saw Eve flying smoothly once more. Flying quite fast now he looked at her... Towards the snitch. His eyes widened in joy, before sinking back down to be replaced with defeat, as the realisation sunk in.

The overjoyed voice of Lee Jordan, the matches Gryffindor commentator, boomed throughout the stadium. "Gyffindor wins!" And Hadrian felt a peculiar mix of relief, pride, and disappointment. But mostly, worry, for why would Quirrell (or Snape) want to hex Eve in such a way? What was the intention? Did they simply want to make her lose the match, or had they hoped to grievously injure her.

Soon after the end of the game, Hadrian found his way to the Gryffindor section of the stands, and began to (for want of a better term) lurk.

As the students in red and gold regalia flooded out of the stands, Hadrian kept his eyes open for a certain bushy haired first year. When he spied her from his spot in the shadows, he directed his wand at her and quietly cast. "Vox lactum."

"Hermione, hey." He whispered. His voice being magically carried to right beside her ear, so only she could hear him.

She started violently, whipping around on her heel, her hair whirling rather wildly as she did so. To this, the students walking along in the crowd behind her, seemed quite alarmed, and carefully avoided her.

"Woah, calm down, it's Hadrian. I'm using the messenger spell to talk to you." He said calmingly.

He observed her opening her mouth to speak, which caused him to chuckle as he said. "I can't hear you, so don't talk, you'll look crazy. Just go back to the gates of the stands, and look like you're waiting for someone, okay?"

She did so. Hadrian then dismissed his spell, and waited for the rest of the Gryffindors to leave for the castle, before he revealed himself. Stepping out from the covered scaffolding that made up the stands, he greeted. "Hey."

Hermione span round, a frightened look on her face. One that did not exactly disappear. "Right, i'm here... So?"

She seemed very suspicious, which didn't do anything to comfort Hadrian. He had saved her from a troll after all, she shouldn't be 'this' wary of him. Sure, he'd expected some animosity, his being a Snake and all, but still. Trying to reassure her he held up his hands in a placating gesture and said. "Ok, no need to be so hostile, I just want to talk... Anyway, what do you think that was about?"

Trying to play off her wariness of the Slytherin, Hermione indignantly stated. "I don't know how you can't see it, why would Quirrell hex Eve's broom? Whats to discuss."

"You're supposed to be smart Granger, there were two people casting at Eve, one of them was obviously causing her broom to freak out. I'm willing to admit it's 'possible' that it was Snape. But you can't let your stupid house rivalry, petty nonsense, cloud your judgement. It's more likely that Quirrell, who we know nothing about, was jinxing, or hexing her, or whatever." Hadrian argued.

"Not likely. Snape's had it in for Eve since we started at Hogwarts. And he was trying to get past the three-headed..." She stopped her ranting, and clamped her hand over her mouth, having let on too much information. But it was enough to clue Hadrian in that maybe the Gryffindor girl had more of a reason to suspect Snape than he thought.

"You've been to the third floor corridor then." Hadrian stated, smirking vehemently.

She removed her hand from her mouth, and gaped at him, shocked. "Wait, you have too?!"

"Yeah. Now spill, why do you think Snape was trying to get past the Cerberus?" Perhaps, Hadrian thought, confiding in her would put Hermione at a little more ease. Or at least give her more of a reason to conspire with him about this. "And why were you, of all people, snooping around the third floor?"

"We weren't snooping!" Hermione defended.

"We? So who else?" Hadrian cottoned on quickly, and pressed his inquiry.

Hermione practically squealed in frustration, before saying. "No, I can't tell you, i've already broken too many rules. And you're a Slytherin. No, you're just trying to trick me. I'm leaving." And she began to storm off towards the castle.

Hadrian had a moment of looking both puzzled and annoyed at her blatant dismissal of him. Before he jogged along in front of her, his back facing the castle so he could still talk to her face to face. "I saved you from that troll Hermione, come on, you can trust me. How did you end up on the third floor?" Hadrian asked, he was wildly interested now, for this provided him an excellent 'in' to the Gryffindors. A shared secret with Granger might help him ingratiate himself with certain lions, and plus, he could talk to her about this in confidence. Far less secret keeping would do him good. The difference being, whatever was kept on the third floor, wasn't his, or the Departments secret.

"We said we'd keep it between ourselves, i'm not telling you." She asserted, yet she loosened a little at his words.

"Was it Eve?" He guessed.

To which her eyes widened, and Hadrian continued. "So it was Eve. Anyone else? If was Eve then Weasley was probably there too, right?"

"How did you know?" Hermione asked, astonished.

"I may not ascribe to all Slytherin stereotypes, but if i'm anything, it's cunning. It was obvious. Besides, you and her are best friends, right?" Hadrian began.

Hermione started to add in, a timid sounding. "Well-" but Hadrian was in mid-flow of his rambling.

So the Unspeakable continued. "You're usually whispering with her and the ginger. Simple deduction." Hadrian explained with a smile. Hermione had stopped walking, and now stood on the path back to the castle with her arms crossed, staring at him evenly.

"Fine. We ended up there by accident, and we had to hide from Filch. Then we wound up in the room with it." She explained reluctantly.

"See, that wasn't so difficult." Hadrian offered. "Now why on earth do you think Snape's after whatever the thing's guarding?"

"Well..." She hesitated. "He was badly injured after the incident with the troll, and we think he went to the third floor while everyone was distracted. He's been limping badly since then."

"Okay, so that's one against Snape. I still don't think it's enough to say for certain though. Keep me posted on what you find out okay? I'll keep my eyes open too." Hadrian said reflectively.

"Look... Hadrian, I appreciate you're trying to help, but..." Hermione sounded awfully hesitant now, which didn't bode well.

"If you say, but you're a Slytherin, Hermione, I swear." Hadrian warned.

"Look, i've got to go." And she bustled off towards the castle once more, at quite a brisk speed.

"Come talk to me if you need any help. I'll do the same for you, Slytherin or not!" The Unspeakable boy called after her.

She only spared a quick look back at him as she was walking away. Hopefully that'd be enough. Hadrian just had to hope that the bridge between him and the Gryffindors, had at least begun building. If not, well, he had other ways of finding things out, significantly more Slytherin ways.

He let his shoulders fall and released a long sigh, then began to walk back to the castle. Hadrian couldn't help but think back on his first day at Hogwarts, and specifically his sorting... Yes, being in Gryffindor might've made his mission easier. But if he was honest, it would never have suited him. He could analyse the way he was thinking from an objective point of view, he was a very smart lad after all. And it was clear that the way he did things was decidedly Slytherin, and Hadrian was glad of that fact.

Hands comfortably in his pockets, Hadrian Wordsworth strolled up the gravel path to the grand castle. His footsteps issuing that satisfying crunching sound from the stones he walked on. The boy looked out across the grounds to his left as he walked. He noted the midday sun reflecting off the deep, sparkling waters of the lake. He viewed the darkened border of the forbidden forest, and the fair sky with its middling, light grey clouds. It wasn't a beautiful day, but it was one of those times when a person can find contentment in anything. Despite the problems being in Slytherin presented, Hadrian found he couldn't care less. It was just one of those moments the unusual boy had from time to tome, when he was glad to be.

His thoughts drifted meaninglessly for awhile... He had heard Theo mention wizard frisbee at some point... The junior Unspeakable had no idea what wizard frisbee entailed, and barely had amy idea what a 'frisbee' was. But it sounded fun, and seemed like it would be a nice day to have a game. Hadrian just hoped it didn't involve explosions, or anything lethal, as so many wizarding pastimes seemed to have a penchant for those sorts of things. As such, Hadrian upped his pace, and went in search of his Slytherin friends.

-/-\-/-\-/-\-

A/N: Thanks for reading. Hope this chapter was enjoyable.


	9. Exchanging gifts

Puer autem ineffabilem (The Unspeakable boy)

Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with the Harry Potter series.

-/-\-/-\-/-\-

-/-\- December 25th, 7:29am, the Potter Manor -/-\-

"Mum, dad! Mum, dad! It's Christmas!" Still clad in her pyjamas, Eve Potter yelped with excitement as she burst into her parents room on Christmas morning.

Twin groans of tiredness were the responses she received from her parents, who did not favour being woken at six o'clock in the morning by their overly excited young daughter. But James and Lily Potter smiled as they got out of bed, pulled on dressing gowns and headed downstairs, after all, they did feel a warm sense of togetherness when they saw their daughter so happy. And she wouldn't be this age forever, not even for much longer. So the Potter family always made the best effort to enjoy christmastime.

Eve rushed down the grand staircase of the Potter manor, with her parents trailing along behind her at a marginally more sluggish pace. Through the warmly decorated home she ran, into the living room, where in the corner of the large room was an even larger christmas tree. Decorated with red and gold strings of tinsel, lights and baubles, the tree was resplendent to say the least. At the foot of the tree was a large assortment of colourfully wrapped presents for the members of the Potter family. Along with a smaller pile off to the side, by which stood three house elves, all wearing festive attire and smiling brightly as the young Eve entered the room.

"We's is wishing you'se a most happyies'est Christmas Miss Potter miss!" They chorused merrily. Bowing deeply as she made her way over to them. Which resulted in the central elves 'christmas elf' hat falling off his head, where it had been sat awkwardly over his large bat-like ears.

"Merry Christmas, Tippa. Merry Christmas, Bopley. Merry Christmas, Darcy." Eve returned their greeting, smiling brightly at the three, before turning to see her parents amble into the room.

Readjusting her glasses on her nose, Eve excitedly asked. "So, can I start opening my presents? Can I?"

"Hold on sweetie, let us sit down first, then we can start." Lily said warmly, holding onto James' arm as they sat down together on the sofa nearest the tree. This seemed to be out of love for her husband, as well as an attempt to keep him from joining his daughter in pouncing on the gifts. For James seemed very excited as well, and the messy haired gentleman was smiling infectiously at his family.

"Go on Princess, lets start, pass us one of mine as well." James said to his daughter, eagerly and with a joy present in his voice that caused his daughters face to light up with equal happiness.

Eve reacher for one of the gifts atop the pile, and after looking at the label, oassed it to her mother. She found one of her fathers gifts, and passed it to him, before taking one that was marked with her name. The present she picked, was wrapped in reflective, silvery wrapping paper, that bore thin stripes in colours of green and midnight blue. It was wrapped up very neatly, with barely any creases or frays on the paper.

The long, sort of thin box, had a card spell-o-taped to the top of it. On the envelope of this card was her name, written in tall, crisp handwriting. Wondering who it was from, she opened the smallish envelope and found a modest christmas card within. It had a picture on the front that showed white-crested hills, with snow falling calmly onto the pretty scene. It was a magical photograph, so the cover of the card seemed to be alive with how the snow continuously fell on the calm, empty, but beautiful scene. She opened the card with a smile, pursuing the writing.

'To Eve.

I hope you enjoy a very happy yuletide, best wishes, your friend

Hadrian Wordsworth.

P.S: I realise my gift to you isn't anything fancy, but it is practical and I hoped you would find it something worthy of carrying on your person. A wand is a Wizards best friend after all (or Witch as the case may be), but if you haven't opened the gift yet, then I shan't spoil anything further.'

Eve raised her eyebrows with a pleasant smile as she read the rather formalistic letter. In truth, she hadn't thought Hadrian would send her anything. Maybe a letter, but she didn't really consider him to be a close friend. So right about now she was feeling a little guilty that she had only sent him a card and no gift. A sad smile passed across her face, and she resolved to thank him when she saw him back at school.

Turning to the present Hadrian had sent her, she unwrapped it gleefully, and found the contents to be a long thin wooden box, much like a wand box. Upon opening the unmarked box, she laid her eyes upon the present that lay within.

It was, she recognised, a wand holster. And a rather nicely made one at that. It was emblazoned with the Hogwarts crest upon its side. The large capital H, surrounded at its corners by the small engravings of a lion, snake, badger and raven. The holster itself was made out of a splendid oak wood.

She lifted it carefully out of the box and examined it with no small amount of wonder. It did look rather cool, she thought as a wide smile played across her face. She set Hadrian's gift aside, and made a mental note to wear it all the time. He hadn't been lying in his card, this was a practical present.

After opening more of the presents, the Potter family received a succession of knocks at their door. Eve ran to open it, and the family welcomed in Eve's godfathers, Padfoot and Moony. Sirius Black and Remus Lupin respectively. Now with her two uncles joining the celebration, time seemed to fly by in a whizz of fun and laughter for Eve Potter.

-/-\- December 25th, 8:30am, Malfoy Manor. -/-\-

Draco Malfoy and his family always enjoyed a quiet, respectful christmas in their home. Formal and utterly presentable, as were most things the politically motivated family did. Even when there was nobody there to present for.

Draco sat with his parents, and began to open a present wrapped on striped, silver, green and dark blue paper. When he noticed it had a small card attached.

He took the card, and flipped it open blithely, only to read.

'Draco.

Have a good yuletide my friend. I hope you have a great time doing whatever it is you purebloods get up to. I recall Blaise mentioning dances and formal dinners? Sounds as boring as Professor Binns if i'm honest, so hopefully my gift to you will help liven things up.

From your friend

Hadrian Wordsworth.'

Draco smiled broadly, and opened the gift with care. He found Hadrian's gift to be a sizeable book, entitled 'One-thousand-and-fun spells your friends will never expect. By Bunty Fluffkin.' His smile widened, and he wondered what his friends would think of his gift.

Putting the book delicately to the side, and making a mental note to read it later, Draco moved onto the few gifts he had not yet opened.

The day wore on, and come dinner time the house elves had cleaned away the discarded paper and envelopes. Now the Malfoys were preparing to host their annual 'Yuletide dinner' for them and their closest friends.

Among others attending the christmas dinner at Mslfoy manor, were the Zabini family, the Nott family, the Parkinson family and the Greengrass family. Draco had contemplated inviting Hadrian, but in all truth, Draco didn't know whether his father would approve of a halfblood family coming to a purebloods dinner party. Maybe there would be other times.

-/-\- December 25th, 8:55am, Hogwarts school. -/-\-

Hadrian had been awake for about an hour now, yet he still had not gotten out of bed. This was partly because he didn't have to, as there was no immediate task, or lesson for him to go to. But partly because he didn't want to. To tell the truth, Hadrian was suffering from a case of the christmas blues.

It was the emptiness that did it really. All the first year Slyherins, boys and girls, had gone home for the winter break. To their ancient and noble, pureblood manors.

Most of the students had gone home actually, and only about four or five from each house were left. With the exception of Slytherin, as there was only one snake left in the castle. Hadrian.

So the boys dormitory was empty, the common room was empty, it was all empty and rather cold. Just like all his Christmases really, this was to be expected, Hadrian mulled. Christmas at the Department of Mysteries was never really 'a thing'. As such, the holiday never held any significance for Harry, whatever name he was under at the time.

He would exchange presents with Croaker, but that was about it, as Croaker was the only member of the department who Harry regularly came into contact with. Furthermore he was the only member who showed up to work on Christmas day.

The materialistic upside though, was that the present Harry received from the man he liked to call dad, were always fascinating. That didn't do anything to stem his glum sensibility though, as now more than ever, he felt like he was missing out on something.

He sat up, and a twitch of a smile was brought upon his face, by the sight of a small stack of colourfully wrapped gifts at the foot of his bed.

He pulled himself to the foot of the bed, and set about opening them. From Malfoy he received a small wizarding wireless radio set. Something that Hadrian immediately turned on after opening, so as to at least not continue his Christmas morning in silence. It was one of those kinds of things he would've never bought for himself, and Hadrian had barely realised he'd wanted one. Which made it the perfect present. As he remembered the hours he'd spend studying, training and doing all amounts of tasks for the Department, he would always have the radio on in the background.

Turning the channel to the 'Magical classics' station, he continued his unwrapping of gifts, to the sweet sounds of the Parisian all-witches choir, floating through the room.

From Theo he received a frankly extortionate amount of Bertie Botts every flavour beans. Beans he began to absentmindedly eat, as he unwrapped the set of potions equipment in Slytherin colours, that he had gotten from Blaise.

He carefully opened one of his two remaining gifts. The one from Daphne was a book, a delicate volume called 'Those lesser told tales, by Ixion Graeae.' From what Hadrian could tell, it was a collection of old stories, legends, myths and odysseys, that weren't exactly well known. Where the stories of those like Beedle the Bard, were the kinds of tales one told children, these stories were far darker, and more, intriguing. The present was made all the more exciting, given the fact that it had come from Daphne of all people. 'An attempt to mend bridges?' Hadrian thought blandly. He and Daphne, hadn't really ticked off one another since the incident with the shroud, and Hadrian hoped that she had out it out of her mind. Attributing it to him doing something 'Slytherin', or even buying his excuse of it being for a project. One way or the other, this meant they were friends, and the book was a marvellous present.

Before turning to the gift he'd received from his father, Hadrian perused the small stack of letters he'd received. He'd gotten cards from most other first year snakes, as well as from Susan Bones, Eve Potter, and Hermione Granger. But all those were typical, knut a dozen cards with a standard formulaic message. 'Happy Christmas, from (enter name here)'. They were a little impersonal, but it still warmed his heart that they'd thought of him at all.

A little merrier now, than when he first woke, Hadrian picked up the gift from Croaker. He opened the simple brown packaging swiftly, and set his eyes upon a small, handleless magnifying glass, that had the appearance of a slightly oversized monocle. More precisely, Croaker had sent him a Magnispying glass. In appearance a small monocle, upon looking through the glass in the correct direction, it is revealed that the lens allows the looker to see through surfaces and walls. A highly useful, and difficult to obtain magical object, given its potential for misuse. The drawback being that secrecy enchantments and spells, on the surface being looked through corrupt the image.

Hadrian smiled, turning the lens over in his hand. He lifted it up to his eye, and looked through it, seeing past the wall of the boys dorm and into the common room. Hadrian's smile broadened, and he considered that in the hands of a lesser man (or boy), this object could be used for great misdeeds. Croaker had entrusted him with this though, and he vowed to use it responsibly...

The lens would come in handy though, especially with uncovering what that tree-headed dog was guarding.

Hadrian packed away everything into his trunk, excluding the wizarding wireless which he set on his bedside table. Then he dressed in a maroon woollen jumper, some of his more muggle clothes, and headed up to the great hall for breakfast.

The hall was far less packed than it usually was, and instead of four house tables, there was only one table running down the middle of the hall. It was around half full with students from each house, all of whom were dressed in everyday robes or muggle clothes. Some of the professors were present too, sat near the middle of the table, around the headmaster who sat on the left side of the tables halfway point. The headmasters remarkably long beard was braided, and he was smiling warmly, while engaging in conversation with one of the students nearby.

Hadrian had started to slowly walk towards an empty spot at the end of table, when a voice called his name from further along.

"Hadrian!" Chirped the cheerful voice of Susan Bones.

Hadrian looked up the table, and saw the brightly smiling Hufflepuff girl, waving back at him. He realised his expression was rather glum, when her chipper demeanour dimmed a bit. And her greeting faded to a somewhat timid wave.

He smiled at her and lightly waved back. as he made his way over. Hadrian's now friendlier manner, seemed to cause Susan's upbeat disposition to replenish somewhat.

He took a seat diagonally across from her. Finding himself next to a mousy looking blonde girl he recognised from Hufflepuff, opposite an indian girl with mid-length dark hair, who he thought might be a Ravenclaw, and with another Hufflepuff girl on Susan's other side. With looks of barely contained mischief on their faces, and the look of innocent elation on Susan's, Hadrian prepared himself for what would most likely be. an engaging breakfast.

"Morning Hadrian." Susan beamed.

"Morning Hadrian." The other girls chorused in a sing song voice, clearly poking fun at their friend.

Susan's cheeks flushed an embarrassed red, as she mumbled out a desperate, yet amused. "You three, stop it."

The three other first year girls giggled mercilessly at their friends expense, then each offered a more genuine. "Good morning."

"Good morning." Hadrian managed, while being both amused and slightly embarrassed at what was clearly going on. "Merry christmas everyone, happy yuletide and all that." He added, sharing a friendly smile with each of them.

"Merry Christmas, to you too." Susan affectionately replied, looking evermore delighted with his presence at the table. Hadrian, in turn, couldn't help the warm sensation that flooded his increasingly shy looking features.

"So Susan, aren't you going to introduce us to your 'friend'. We haven't properly met him after all." Said the Ravenclaw, with a cheeky smirk directed between the other girls.

"Ugh... Hadrian, meet Hannah and Megan they're in Hufflepuff with me, and this is Padma, she's in ravenclaw. Guys, this is Hadrian, but you three knew that already." Susan introduced them with no lack of joyful exasperation.

Hadrian couldn't help but notice how Susan seemed quite different than normal. Whenever he'd spoken with her before, which had always been briefly and of no real consequence, she had always been very reserved and shy. As had he. But now among her friends she seemed a lot more outgoing, much more at ease. "Knew me already?" Hadrian questioned, reasonably suspiciously.

"Oh please, even if Susan didn't talk about you all the time-" Megan started to ramble.

"Megan!" Susan interrupted frantically.

"What?" Megan replied, seemingly unaware of why Susan was now blushing redder than a muggle fire-engine.

"Ok, first, I don't. Second... He's right there." Susan whispered madly to her friend.

"She's right, I am, right here." Hadrian said knowingly, while smirking at Susan. Feeling pleased with himself, as his comment seemed to make her more bashful than humanly possible, as she partly covered her face with her hands.

Snorting derisively at the back and forth between Susan and Hadrian, Megan continued. "Plus, everyone knows you beat that troll on Halloween. Or the troll beat you?"

"Well, both, kind of." Hadrian joked, a small amount of pride playing through in his voice. "And, does, everyone know?" He inwuired, more seriously and a little worriedly.

"Yeah" Hannah said affirmatively. "People are still talking 'bout it, 'bout how you 'n Eve Potter took down the troll."

'Me 'and' Eve Potter? Hmm, people hear what they want to hear maybe...' Hadrian thought calmly. 'But that will at least work to my advantage. Low profile and all that.'

"So why aren't you home for christmas, Hadrian?" Susan asked, having recovered from her embarrassment.

"I dunno, I kinda prefer it here I guess." Hadrian said in lieu of the truth.

"Really? Are your parents away for the holidays then?" Padma inquired.

"Oh, yeah." Hadrian quickly supplied. "What about you four?" He queried, shifting the focus away from his 'family'.

"My aunt is always working a bunch, so I chose to stay instead of bother her." Susan answered conversationally.

"I usually do whatever my sister, Parvati, doesn't. I love her and all, but she gets on my nerves too much." Padma offered casually, with traces of annoyance present for the sake of her sister.

"I stayed to keep Susan company, since I don't desperately need to go home." Hannah explained smiling.

"And my parents are on holiday." Megan explained.

It was like this, that the rest of the morning continued, with idle friendly chatter between the five of them. And when the girls stood up from the table and asked him to spend the day with them, who was he to refuse.

They each split back to their respective common rooms, in order to don warmer clothes. Then met back up to mess around outside, in the deeply layered snow. Snowmen and snow-angels were made, ice was skated (semi-successfully) and eventually, snowballs were thrown.

Towards the end of the day, Hadrian began to think that christmas this year, hadn't been so lonely after all.

It was when he was walking the three Huffkepuff girls back towards their common room, when it went from being a decent christmas, to being one he would remember for a long time to come.

Padma had gone off back to the Ravenclaw tower, which left Hadrian walking with Susan Megan and Hannah, back to the Hufflepuff common room, as it was en route to the dungeons. Hannah and Megan had been walking ahead, and he and Susan were lazily trailing behind. Occasionally taking time to look at the opulent, festive decorations. The pair were nearing the point, where Hadrian would have to leave to get back to the dungeons, when Megan and Hannah rounded a corner up ahead.

His attention was suddenly drawn to Susan when he heard her, quickly and playfully say. "Mistletoe."

He turned to regard her, and as soon as he did, she closed the small space between them, and met him with a tame kiss. It was by no means a wonderful kiss, but for a first kiss, it was very enjoyable. Hadrian barely had any time to recover from the slight shock, before the kiss had ended, and Susan had taken off down the corridor after her friends. The cute Hufflepuff girl turned back as she reached the corner, giving him a little wave and a brilliant smile, she called back. "Merry christmas, Hadrian."

Hadrian barely managed an abashed. "you too." Before Susan had fled after her friends. Looking up at the ceiling briefly, the unspeakable boy noticed something a little odd. There was no mistletoe... Oh well, he wasn't going to complain. So he started the walk that would take him to the Slytherin common room.

He was somewhere on the first floor, perhaps, when he put his hands in his pockets and was reminded of something. It was the small glass disc in his pocket that made him remember. The Magnispying glass he had received as a present from Croaker that morning. Taking it out, he looked at the flat, glass lens in the dim torch lit hallway. Raising it up to eye level he peered through it, and instead of seeing the right hand wall of whatever corridor he was on, he saw a large, almost completely empty classroom. Almost, because there was one thing present in the room, and that was a tall, standing mirror.

Now the mirror was certainly extravagant. Gold edged, with intricate carvings and embossments upon its frame. But that wasn't what was most interesting about the mirror, it was what was reflected in the mirror that piqued his interest. That anything was shown in the mirror at all was itself shocking, for there was no visible person who it could be reflecting, and certainly no one dressed as such as the reflection showed.

The conclusion Hadrian drew, was that the mirror this room, must be reflecting him. Though that was seemingly impossible, as the Magnispying glass only allowed the viewer to see through surfaces, not vice versa. Unless this mirror could be, somehow magically aware that someone was looking into it, and showed a reflection of that person thus? But even that didn't seem right, as the reflection might well have been him, but he certainly wasn't dressed in those robes.

He went to investigate further, and put the lens back in his trouser pocket. The Unspeakable boy, quickly unlocked the door with a muttered, 'alohamora' and stepped through into the room.

Hadrian closed the door quietly, and crossed the open space briskly, with a purpose. A determined expression set on his face, resolutely deciding to get to the bottom of this mystery.

Now he stood in front of the mirror, Hadrian could see the reflection more clearly. It was a person, male, about his height and proportion. However, none of their features, or even any part of their skin was shown. For they were wearing an all covering, maroon cloak, made of a flowing silky material. It was almost mystical in the way it seemed to shimmer and flow, even though it was not moving. To Hadrian, it was the very familiar uniform, of the Unspeakables.

"Is there any particular reason you chose to come in here, Mr Wordsorth?" Came a kind, elderly voice from behind him. Hadrian wheeled around, and saw Headmaster Dumbledore standing there, a few feet away from him.

"Professor! I... What I mean to say is-" Hadrian spluttered, caught immensely off guard by the sudden appearance of the Headmaster.

"It's quite alright, Mr Wordsworth... I see you've found the mirror of Erised." The venerable professor said, his blue eyes, twinkling lightly from behind half-moon spectacles.

Hadrian regained his composure somewhat, and looked at the mirror once more. This time he saw the inscription at the top of the frame, after a moment he managed to decode what the jumble of letters meant. "... I show not your face but your hearts desire..." Now the reflection made sense to him, yet Hadrian could only ponder one small detail of the message. "Whoever thought that up only encoded it to be pretentious."

Albus Dumbledore chuckled genuinely, and inquired. "How so?"

"Well, anyone with half a brain could write a secret message better than this. Whoever made this mirror just wanted to be artsy... Or ystra"

The old man laughed gently again, and replied congenially. "I find myself inclined to agree... It is a marvellous magical artefact though, don't you think?"

"Oh, no doubt..." Hadrian said reverently. The idea of what this mirror was showing him beginning to sink in, now that he had read the inscription.

A distant silence passed, as the two stared st the mirror, both seeing what they wanted to see, but neither reacting or saying a word. "... May I ask what you see in the mirror, Mr Wordsworth? As I find myself wondering, why you were scrutinising it so intently a moment ago.." The headmaster asked.

Hadrian debated answering, and did so. Though he was a little hazy on the truth of the matter. "I see myself, wearing a lovely, brand new set of robes..."

The headmaster smiled warmly, and seemed genuinely pleased at that answer. "How wonderful."

To which Hadrian inquired slowly. "What do you see, Headmaster?"

The headmaster seemed to answer in much the way Hadrian himself had. Taking his time, and thinking over each word he spoke. "... I see myself holding a brand new pair of thick, woollen socks."

They both looked at each other for a moment. When they locked eyes, Hadrian felt the carefully sculpted walls of his mental occlumency being prodded, and tested. He rebuffed the headmasters attempt at legillimency, without as much as a word. Then they both looked back at the mirror, a silent understanding once again passing between them, neither willing to ask any questions. For the unspoken understanding was now clear, 'Don't ask, don't tell'.

After a little while of them just looking into the mirror, Hadrian quietly tried a risky question. "... i'll tell you what I really see, if you do the same..."

Albus contemplated this for a while, then answered thoughtfully. "... I see myself, with my family, and a very dear friend..."

The young Slytherins answer was given just as pensively, tip toeing around the whole truth, just like he suspected the headmaster had done. "... I see a person, who knows all the secrets."

"... Well, I think it's time you went off to bed now, Mr Wordsworth." Dumbledore concluded, in his usual. friendly tone.

Hadrian conceded, as he had no reason to stay. "Okay, Headmaster, g'night." Then he walked past the headmaster, and opened the door to leave.

Dumbledore spoke once more, and stopped Hadrian before he had left. "Hadrian, I think i'll have the mirror moved to a different location. I wouldn't come looking for it again." Was the Headmasters friendly warning.

"I wasn't going to professor." Was the Unspeakable boys level answer, before he walked out the classroom, and closed the door behind him. He began to head back to the dungeons, this time, not stopping to look through any walls.

He had seen his hearts desire... 'Curious...' Was all Hadrian could muster to think on the subject. He hadn't really known that was what he wanted, or desired. The revelation was somewhat reassuring, yet at the same time saddening... His deepest hearts desire seemed a little empty, at first glance. He wanted to have a job, where no one would see his face, or hear his real voice, or know who he was. To be like an unknowable, unspeakable, unstoppable entity. Like his teachers at the department, like the field operatives, like Croaker... He wondered what his friends might've seen had they looked in the mirror of Erised. Draco? Blaise? Theo? Susan? Hermione Granger?... Eve Potter. What would they have seen.

-/-\-/-\-/-\-

A/N: This chapter was a bit of a pain to write, plus i've had less time to write on the whole, so updates will slow down. The upside to that, is i'll be able to think the chapters through a lot more. The main reason It took longer to get this chapter out, was because of my trying to approach 'romance' in the context of kids their age. I've been dropping subtleties here and there, but this was more obvious. Hopefully I didn't butcher it horribly.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and thanks for all the feedback, follows and favourites. They keep me writing :)


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